Old meets new

Built in 1967, the courthouse underwent the most extensive renovation of its time – all while remaining fully occupied, secure, and operational. Function and beauty – all wrapped in one building. This 2-phase project involved building a new 32,000-square-foot addition, followed by a 54,000-square-foot remodel and seismic retrofit of the existing courthouse. Our team led design and constructability reviews, value analysis workshops, site options analyses, subcontractor outreach, and construction phasing planning.

We believe knowledge is power, and that being proactive allows us to better plan and deliver for our clients – that’s why we preemptively developed multiple construction scenarios for the county, including budgets, scopes of work, and project schedules. This provided a full breadth of possibilities and allowed the county select an approach that worked best for them.

To ensure the process of remotely working with SLAM Collaborative Justice Group and Hoffman Construction was seamless, we utilized new technologies to keep the teams connected. We also leveraged our land-use entitlement expertise to amend the development agreement governing the project site, allowing permitting to move forward, as well as our communications expertise to report project progress to multiple audiences such as elected officials, building staff, and the general public.

Let’s talk about an item top of mind – budget. OAC partnered with the Hoffman Construction, SLAM Collaborative, and Snohomish County to document existing conditions, even photographing inside walls and ceilings, while collaboratively managing scope, schedule, and budget. Team efforts resulted in saving the county millions of dollars, without sacrificing any security, seismic, accessibility, or court operations standards.