Behind the metal fencing and crumbling concrete that has lined the Deschutes County Courthouse since May, there is a vision for a nearly 51,000-square-foot expansion that will bring new facilities and increased functionality to the expanding circuit court.

Construction crews broke ground on the new expansion in May, but Lee Randall, the director of facilities for Deschutes County, said plans for the expansion date back 20 years to the last expansion of the courthouse.

“Something similar to this was first envisioned in 2004 when the expansion (of the 1970s courthouse) was completed,” Randall told The Bulletin. “Since then, it was anticipated that the real trigger for (the current) expansion would be the addition of more judges being allocated to the county. That came about January of 2021, and that really was the impetus to push the project forward.”

The three-story southward expansion of the courthouse will include two more courtrooms with additional judges’ chambers. There will be a new entrance, expanded sheriff’s office facilities, holding cells, enclosed secure parking for staff, new administration offices and more court clerks’ offices.

Project goals and exceeding standards

Even with the litany of new facilities planned for this expansion, the county is accounting for future growth. The third story of the building will be an empty shell, said Randall, and is reserved for later expansion as Deschutes County becomes bigger and more populated.

Leaving the third floor empty fulfills one of seven project goals emphasized by the county for this two-year expansion: additional space, wellness, design, maintenance, functionality, user experience and security. By focusing on these goals, Randall said, the county can turn what was “adequate” into something that exceeds “best practices.”

One example Randall said he is excited about, is lowering the entrance of the courtroom to street level. While it might seem like a small change, there is a cascading effect. With the new entrance in the expanded area of the building, accessibility will improve, security standards can be modernized and it improves the user experience.

“There’s just something imposing about the steps. You come to the building and the first thing you encounter are steps, so I’m excited about the new main entrance. It’s going to be much more welcoming,” Randall said.

Security trumps parking

But being more welcoming doesn’t mean being less secure. As part of the expansion, the county underwent a Department of Homeland Security review to ensure the expanded courthouse meets standard guidelines for security. With the new entrance, there will be more space inside for people to line up before entering the building and more room for the sheriff’s office to conduct operations.

“Part of the goal is to improve security,” said Eric Nielsen, the county’s capital improvement manager. “Along with that comes a loss of parking along Bond (Street) permanently. I imagine public perception is that they’ve lost parking accesses, but the reason behind that was to meet modern security standards for courthouses. Where previously we had vehicles able to park right in front of the lobby, now we’re removing those vehicles and that security threat for the staff inside.”

Nine parking spots along Bond Street will disappear Nielsen said, but Randall pointed out that the elimination of those spaces coincides with a county project to bring more parking to the downtown campus.

“In conjunction with this, the county is also in the middle of a planned review for what we’re calling our Downtown County Campus Parking Project. As part of that, we’ll be adding about 30-plus spaces just north of Lafayette. We purposefully wanted to do those projects in parallel so … there will actually be a net gain of parking overall.”

Behind the scenes

While the public will see the improvements made to the new entrance and will be able to access waiting areas and courtrooms located in the expansion, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that the average visitor to the courthouse isn’t able to see.

“One of the critical components of modern courtroom design is establishing three separate pathways, one for the public, one for the staff and judges and one for in-custody folks. Previously we had a few separate pathways, but for the most part there were places where those three paths intersected.”

To make sure these pathways remain separate, Randall explained that there will be a central core to the three-story expansion for in-custody transport. This means defendants being brought in from the Deschutes County jail can be brought through a “sally port” and taken through the building without crossing the public.

Staff and judges will also have their own separate corridors as well as their own employee entrance. Those who work in the building will also have access to a secure parking facility.

Improvements to the temporary entrance

Right now, Randall and Nielsen said most of the activity going on at the courthouse is demolition of the old entrance vestibule. There is still a year and a half before construction of the courthouse expansion is scheduled for completion in 2026, and supply-chain delays may make it longer.

That means the temporary entrance put in between the old 1970s courthouse and the 2004 expansion is going to be around for a while.

“The temporary entrance, from the moment it opened, we’ve been adapting to how the public uses it,” Nielsen said. “We had plans and signage in place, but actually seeing how the public is using it with the parking that is available, we’re working to improve way finding signage hopefully (make it) a little more intuitive for the public.”

Most of the issues the courthouse has experienced with the temporary entrance have surrounded finding the entrance among the chaos of the construction. It’s not as visible, Randall said, and can be difficult to find if someone is coming from the north side. Finding accessible parking — which is now behind the old courthouse — can also be difficult.

To address this, Randall said the county has ordered new signs to help the public find their way around easier. The new signs should be installed sometime in the next month, he said.

Editor’s note: This article has been corrected. The original version misstated the size of the expansion and the age of the original courthouse expansion. The Bulletin regrets the errors.