Municipal + Commercial

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Wayne County Offices Finished

Posted by: inFORM studio | Sep, 23rd

Project: Wayne County Offices

The Wayne County Courthouse stands as one of the most prominent and important regional landmarks and is a superb example of Beaux-Arts architecture.  The four-story building, with walls of light colored Ohio sandstone standing on a rusticated stone foundation and topped by an elaborate central tower surmounted by a cupola, has undergone a thorough restoration and been named to National Historic Landmark status.  However, despite the beautiful and articulate structure and detailing throughout, the interior lacks a level of modern efficiencies, organization, and practical light levels for the current use.  The following proposal endeavors to propel the functional performance and its inherent aesthetic to match the reputation of the original architecture.

Entrance-  Originally, a grand exterior staircase brought visitors up to a 2nd floor public lobby.  Due to the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Michigan Barrier Free code, the original entry sequence is no longer utilized.  Public entry to the building currently proceeds below the staircase and into a lower dimly lit lobby space occupied by a security desk with elevators immediately adjacent to the entrance doors.  The security desk performs neither as a place that welcomes, due to its confining foreground and lack of orientation to the building beyond it, nor as an adequate position of security because the elevators are immediately adjacent to the entry. The insertion of a more recognizable and significant concierge desk, providing both security and information, located at the intersection for circulation at the ground floor provides an orientation for visitors in pointing out directions, and space for aggregation as larger numbers of visitors enter the building.  Additionally planes of translucent glass between the entry and elevators provide a more controlled access to the building through security personnel at the concierge desk.  Materially, glass is implemented because of its ability to transmit light and its intrinsic nature is to deny content (that is to say, that its presence is about what surrounds it, not self-referential).  The interventions themselves produce light that highlights the architecture of the original structure in a more luminous environment.

Atrium-  The atrium space provides a space of grandeur and recognition that can serve for promotional events and a more regular gathering space for lunch or informal meetings.  The removal of very heavy stiled glass doors allows a colonnade to exist with more intimate seating located within it.  Other heavy doors leading to the perimeter circulation space would be replaced with glazed doors continuing the notion of colonnade to the brightly lit space beyond it.

Workspace-  A more efficient aggregation of workspace, particularly in the large corridor spaces of the third floor and fourth floor, could be considered as a space within space.  It is critical to consider modern workspace inserted into these historic confines in a pluralistic way.  Organizationally, workstations can be set up as single or double spaces at window locations along the atrium wall.  Natural illumination enters the workspace and is distributed further into an area for circulation.  Artificial illumination is an extension of the workspace and continues as a plane of light as wrapper along the wall and ceiling.  It affords a diffuse and consistent light that highlights the existing architecture, provides excellent work illumination and conceals any exposed conduit required for ease of construction.

Conference Space-  A very similar language is employed in the conference space to that of the workspace.  The luminous translucent wrapper diffuses the natural light through the windows, lowers a disproportionate ceiling height without losing a sense of the volume, provides a bright consistent artificial light source, and conceals any conduit required for power or lighting.

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