San Bernardino County Courthouse Seismic Upgrade and Historical Renovation
San Bernardino, California, United States
Client: County of San Bernardino
Parsons Brinckerhoff Role: Construction Management
Parsons Brinckerhoff provided comprehensive construction management services for a $26.6 million seismic retrofit and renovation of the San Bernardino County Courthouse, named one of California’s Best Projects of 2011 by ENR California, a leading construction industry publication. The vintage 1926 courthouse, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is located in a region of high seismic exposure adjacent to both the San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems.
The building contains 15 courtrooms, plus hearing rooms and offices with a daily occupancy of several hundred people. In order to keep the building accessible and to allow it to be occupied at all times, construction was performed during evenings, weekends, and holidays. There were over 20 courtroom moves to allow renovation while court operations continued. Construction management services included constructibility review, construction scheduling and cost management, coordination of relocations, and construction inspection.
The project included the renovation and seismic retrofit of the four-story, 80,000-square-foot (7,400-square-meter) central courthouse as well as retrofit and modernization of an attached T-wing annex court building constructed in 1956. Upgrades to the courthouse complied with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. All renovations in the public areas and in the three historic original courtrooms met strict state historic preservation requirements. Plans included refurbishing the exterior of the building and recapturing its historical character by restoring the original design and incorporating aesthetic treatments.