Wisconsin’s Dane County Justice Center in Madison is the county’s first facility to meet prescribed green building goals. Architects from Leonard Parker in Minneapolis and The Durrant Group Inc. in Hartland, Wis., collaborated with energy-consulting firm The Weidt Group in Minnetonka, Minn., and Miron Construction Co. Inc. in Madison to design the $30-million, 256,000-square-foot, eight-story facility within the constraints of the county’s environmental, financial and physical 
parameters. 

Situated on a small, triangular site within several hundred yards of the state capitol, the site needed to be cleared of two existing office buildings prior to construction of the new, three-sided structure befitting its landscape. One of these office buildings was deconstructed and its salvageable building materials recycled and reused; the other was moved to a new 
location.

Connected by tunnel to an adjacent pubic safety building, the new structure houses courtrooms, judges’ chambers, jury assembly rooms, pressroom, cafeteria and offices for city and county commissioners, the bailiffs, the district attorney and his staff. Nearly every office has a window.

With respect to its neighborhoods and in accordance with local building codes, the new Justice Center also had to comply with height limitations and space restrictions. Madison does not allow any structure to exceed the 285-foot height of the state capitol dome. Additionally, the center needed to maintain minimum requirements for space between the buildings to gain the desired, expansive window system. 

Incorporating windows from Wausau Window and Wall Systems was a key consideration in helping the building meet the county’s green building guidelines, equivalent to that of a LEED silver rating under the Green Building Rating System. As part of a “whole building” design approach, careful consideration was given to save energy and create a healthy work environment. Toward this goal, the window system maximized daylighting design objectives to help increase worker productivity and reduce electric lighting costs.

General contractor Simmons Building Products Inc. of Milwaukee used an energy-efficient curtainwall system designed by Wausau with both convex and concave wall forms to fit the center’s constrained contours. The company used low-E glass to minimize unwanted heat gain. Accommodating natural ventilation, the zero sightline, operable windows also were manufactured and pre-glazed as an integral element of the unitized system. Both the concave and the convex areas are four-sided curtainwall that was pre-assembled and pre-glazed into carrier frames for fast installation. 

The Weidt Group estimates the structure will be capable of saving up to 50 percent in electric consumption and 37 percent in overall annual operating energy for an estimated savings of $96,500 in annual costs and a simple payback of 4.8 years. 

Safe in Jacksonville

The $80-million U.S. Federal Courthouse in Jacksonville, Fla., designed by HLM Design, is a 15-story tower with laminated glass curtainwall façades on all sides of the building. A four-story curtainwall set slightly in front of the tower creates a striking atrium, welcoming visitors to the courthouse in a pleasant public space as they pass through a security check point and into 
the building’s core. Because of the sheer volume of windows, natural light floods all interior spaces of the 457,416-square-foot 
building. 

The Jacksonville courthouse was one of the first courthouses constructed after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and was the first high-rise, blast-resistant, architectural concept curtainwall implemented by the General Services Administration (GSA). After the bombing, GSA instituted strict blast security requirements to protect people in federal buildings and surrounding areas against future attacks. According to Robert Grosze, vice president of the physical security division at Masonry Arts Inc., which designed the custom frame for the structure, “The Jacksonville project was the first GSA blast-resistant project to utilize new state-of-the-art software to calculate the final design of glass, framing and anchorage to ensure that the entire system would meet minimum blast requirements. This was significantly faster, more efficient and less costly than previous methods and set the standard for the design of future courthouses.” 

The architects specified insulating laminated glass manufactured by Viracon of Owatonna, Minn., that provided the necessary blast protection when installed in the custom frame. Solutia Inc., St. Louis, manufactured the Saflex polyvinyl butyral (PVB) interlayer for the heat-strengthened glass. To create the various curtainwalls, the architects used a variety of glass configurations that incorporated low-E and reflective coatings. These coatings improve energy efficiency by reducing solar heat gain, while simultaneously allowing natural daylight into the building.

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