A building condition assessment completed on behalf of the British Columbia Courthouse Capital Asset Management Plan (CAMP) identified the Victoria Law Courts facility as the highest priority for replacement in its 10-year capital plan. The existing Courthouse accommodates three levels of court – Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, and Provincial Court plus a number of Courthouse support functions. In addition to the building condition issues, the layout of the facility is no longer capable of meeting functional requirements for security zoning.
Background
Process
Working closely with a Project Management Team, we undertook a series of interviews with all key user groups to review planning assumptions and establish priorities. During this process a decision was made to have two separate buildings – a Courthouse and a Courts Support Building. This approach was adopted as it reinforced the importance of the Law Courts in the community context by shifting support functions to a nearby facility. Facility Programs were prepared for both buildings and they included site and massing illustrations to show the required site sizes and configurations.
Solution
As a site for the new law courts and a courts support office building had not yet been selected, it is not yet known if a single site will be available to accommodate the two facilities and parking requirements. To facilitate examination of different siting possibilities, the Victoria Law Courts Master Program was organized to provide required information for each of the facilities and parking.
Volume 1: Courthouse Master Program
Volume 2: Courts Support Building Master Program
Volume 3: Parking Requirements
Volume 4: Site Requirements
The Results
The Master Program was adjusted several times in response to client requests to modify key planning assumptions.
The structure that was designed for the Report, helped to reduce the amount of time and effort involved in making the revisions
The project is now proceeding to the Business Plan stage.
