Architects show three Justice Center options; commissioners press for more study

Brinkley, Sergeant & Wigginton’s team presented three conceptual options for a downtown Justice Center and corresponding budget forecasts. Charlie Goodman and Ryan McLemore described stacking strategies to fit a 42,000-square-foot floor plate at the proposed San Jacinto site, recommended three courtrooms per floor (rather than four), and explained how shell floors and future finish-outs would affect cost. The architects said a fully built-out option could accommodate roughly 18–22 courtrooms depending on phasing, while a more conservative option would reduce square footage and lower short-term costs.

Commissioners and judges pressed for more user input and clearer cost breakdowns. Commissioners noted unresolved questions about street closures, city variances, and the estimated budget. One architect explained that finish-out costs for additional courtroom suites would be lower than removing and re-adding an entire structural floor, and provided a high-level estimate of roughly $2 million per courtroom suite for finish-out—illustrating the tradeoffs between upfront shell construction and later build-outs.

Attribution: quotes in this article are from architects who identified themselves in the record: Charlie Goodman and Ryan McLemore of Brinkley, Sergeant & Wigginton Architects.