Haywood County Justice Center

The new Haywood County Justice Center in Waynesville, North Carolina, is a careful blending of an historic civic symbol of the area with a contemporary justice center, plaza and parking deck. The new construction accommodates the consolidation of county departments without dwarfing the historic courthouse. The design takes great pains to sensitively resolve the differences in scale and blend those pieces into a collective whole.  The complex is situated on Main Street just a few blocks from the commercial core of town.

A plaza was created at the front door of the justice center. Its purpose is to be a gathering point for those entering or leaving the building.  The plaza offers impressive vistas west to the mountain ranges beyond. It also serves as an arrival forecourt for both the historic courthouse and the new justice center, as well as a location for civic functions at night and on weekends.

The height of the new justice center almost mirrors the height of the historic courthouse, establishing a gateway into and out of Waynesville. The buildings share similar cornice lines. The new justice center base shares the same height as an architectural banding feature on the historic courthouse and serves as a transition to the residential/commercial scale of the properties across Main Street. The three bay windows on the Main Street facade share similarities to the major window on the front façade of the historic courthouse. The selection of the exterior materials palette is a compliment to that of the historic courthouse.

One of Heery’s design studios, formerly HLM design in Orlando, was the designer for the project.  Heery was the construction manager at-risk.