EVERETT — The lead architect on Snohomish County’s new downtown courthouse is scheduled to give a public presentation Wednesday showcasing the building’s design.
County officials aim to break ground this summer. Staff from the county and City of Everett report they’ve all but resolved a parking dispute that threatened to scuttle the $162 million project earlier this year.
The courthouse design takes styling cues from nearby county buildings, “but it’s totally different from anything we have to date,” county facilities director Mark Thunberg said.
Wednesday’s session with courthouse architect Doug Kleppin from the firm Heery International is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. in the first-floor hearing room of the county’s Robert Drewel Building on 3000 Rockefeller Ave., Everett. The presentation is expected to last an hour.
Atlanta-based Heery has offices in Seattle and two dozen other locations in North America. The company has designed more than 70 courthouses.
The future Snohomish County courthouse, as designed, includes 253,000 square feet, spread throughout eight stories and a basement. It would go up on the north side of Wall Street, between Rockefeller and Oakes avenues.
Plans for the building almost collapsed after the Everett City Council in December enacted an emergency zoning rules requiring hundreds of parking spots that weren’t in the county’s original plans. The county reasoned that adding so much parking was unnecessary, because the new building would merely replace the old 1967 courthouse across the street, with no added staff.
The new building will include Superior and District Court courtrooms, the Clerks’ Office, the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office Criminal Division, the Office of Public Defense, Sheriff’s Office administrative offices and a law library.
The county expects the new building to be ready by the fall of 2017. Hoffman Construction Co. of Seattle is the contractor.
Once the new courthouse is occupied, the county intends to tear down the old one and build a public plaza in its place. The Mission building will remain.
In April, the county struck a deal to rent 300 parking stalls in a future city-owned garage. The county would pay Everett about $5.5 million over 20 years.
City staff are processing land-use and environmental approvals that will allow construction to begin, planning director Allan Giffen said. Lawyers for both sides are working to finalize the parking agreement.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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