The Norfolk County Probate Court project at 35 Shawmut Road is administered through the Massachusetts Department of Capital Asset Management as a rental space contract privately negotiated. Our services were provided to the Commonwealth through the Landlord. We provided initial design, program analysis and cost estimating to the landlord to help secure the contract for the project. Upon winning the bid, we met with the Trial Court of Massachusetts Project Manager as well as the DCAM Project Manager through the design process.

The 43,660 SF program was organized into five major parts: the Probation Department, the Probate Court with 5 court rooms, the Registry of Probate, Security Area and heavy storage. The storage was located on the grade floor where the most live load could bear. The Registry of Probate was included on the first floor because of the high traffic to that area. The Security Area was located in the rear of the first floor where there is easy access to the exterior sally port. The Courtrooms were located on the second floor where the public areas could be easily defined and the private Judges Chambers could be served by a private elevator and independent egress system. The Probation Department was located on the third level where its functions could be adjacent to a future non-court neighbor in the remaining tenant space.

The entire project was completed in 12 months – initial design and bid through occupancy. Richard Alvord Architects provided Schematic Design through Construction Administration services.

Photos by Matt Teuten