Academy of Architecture for Justice

Highlights from the AAJ Session “Justice for All: Embracing Diversity in Civic Design”

Tulare County – 62% Hispanic in Porterville,

See the attached screen shot showing the statistics on the city of Porterville. 62% of the population is Hispanic in Porterville. When language could be a barrier, way-finding becomes ever more important in the design. Also, the Court users may not have access to online forms, which accounts for the higher rate of people visiting the courthouse. With the high poverty rate, public transportation would be essential.

Eight concerns from the Judge

1. Lot of people doing things in cash only
2. Trend with having fewer attorneys and more self-represented litigants (over 90% in Family Law)
3. Limited public transportation
4. Security is the huge issue with the northern and southern gangs arriving at Porterville with confrontations and warfare. The facility needs to be safe, but friendly to the users at the same time.
5. Large non-English speaking population
6. Extreme heat 110+ degree during summer with dry climate
7. Being potentially the only significant building in the community, how do we convey the message of the importance of law through architecture?
8. Growing community – each courtroom is to be flexible, designed for multiple uses in future

TRENDS IN COURTHOUSE DESIGN

Sources: John Martin; Peter Kiefer and Phil Knox from Maricopa County, Arizona; Court of the Future Group from Australia and France

1. CULTURAL DIVERSITY – Language assistance; interpretation services; way-finding as clear as possible
2. QUALITY OF ENVIRONMENTS – Sustainability; natural daylight; long-term durability
3. EFFICIENCY – Staff and budgets decrease with increasing caseload; reduce wait times by ticket number system; employ efficient flow and services; solve requests quickly
4. TECHNOLOGY – Increase efficiency – PAPERLESS Courthouse; Online interactions, technology-rich courtrooms
5. FLEXIBILITY – Growth and change, adding courtrooms in future; movable rails at jury box and well rails. Casework rails can be demounted,
6. MORE SECURITY – screening, separating circulations, monitoring
7. SUSTAINABLE JUSTICE – Evidence-based practices; address the roots of crimes; effective work with other justice partners
8. SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANTS – Self-help resource center; file viewing; child waiting; mediating center

DESIGN RESPONSES:

Exterior walk-up windows keep a lot of people out of the courthouse – people can get forms without going through security, hence reducing the load on the security screening. Courtyard – people not being cooped up, improves the court experience.

L-shape configuration of the floor plan brings daylight into all courtrooms

Long stone benches instead of bollards at the front entry – secure, yet user-friendly

Connection to the exterior with view to the mountains beyond. Court experience can be intimidating, the goal is to reduce stresses. The same theory in healthcare can be employed in courthouse design.

LESSONS LEARNED – IF we were to do this again….

1. Have some conference rooms available for public; all conference rooms are currently behind secured areas.
2. Secure restrooms for the Justice Partners
3. Add green light in sallyport to signal go/no-go coordinated with the operation of the sallyport doors.

ART PROGRAM – Include art within construction budget – Large tile mural, 108’x5’, with the art generated from the landscape mountain panorama.

Create half-tone texture with perforated panels capturing a satellite image of the valley. Perforation also adds acoustical value. 

Presentation was led by CO Architects. Thank you all for this informative session!