Dare County Justice Center

Dare County, N.C., residents loved their 100-year-old courthouse, but needed a justice center that would meet their growing judicial needs. County officials recognized the remote location, coupled with the coastal locality, could present construction challenges and asked for special legislation to permit the project to be completed using the design-build delivery process. With this in mind, they hired Heery first to provide programming, planning and design, later amending the contract so that Heery could act as a single-source design-build entity, guaranteeing the quality, cost and schedule for a new two-story, 70,000 SF justice center that would house county tax offices, Register of Deeds, probation, sheriff’s offices, holding cells, five courtrooms and clerk of court offices with support facilities. The stately brick facility, replete with columns and balconies reminiscent of the former facility, and admired by officials and residents, was completed in 2002.

The team used an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), also known as LEAN, approach to the project. The county, the community and design build stakeholders worked together to deliver this successful architectural and operational project.