Cuyahoga County - Juvenile Justice Center

For more than 30 years, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, had tried to replace its aging and undersized juvenile detention facility, which had earned the moniker “worst juvenile detention facility in the nation” from the National Juvenile Detention Association.  With an increase in youth offenders to contend with as well, Cuyahoga County recognized the need to create a new detention facility, a new intervention center and a new juvenile courts building.  The county commissioners called upon Heery to serve as owner’s representative throughout the comprehensive planning, programming, design and construction phases of the juvenile justice center completed in 2011. 

Given the critical task of assessing sites and determining funding and delivery options, Heery evaluated potential sites assigning design, construction and operational costs for each.  The final decision was to acquire a 16-acre brownfield site in a nearby Cleveland community.  Heery provided environmental analysis, which uncovered a variety of chemicals on the former factory and brewery site.  Its efforts in helping the county obtain remediation funding and managing site clean-up not only enabled the county to create a healthy site, but also to win the OEPA Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund Award. In addition, the justice center has achieved LEED Silver certification. 

The key components of the CCJJC include a secure detention facility with a capacity of 180 beds; a 330,000 SF court tower to provide 36 courtrooms with associated chambers and magistrate offices; a flexible-use space dedicated to the community to promote a larger continuum of prevention and intervention services for the youth.