U.S. Courts Design Guide
information essential to the planning, programming, and design of federal court
facilities. Each component is described in detail at the end of this introduction.
Because the Guide deals with design guidelines for all types of federal courts
including the USCA, USDC including magistrate judges, and USBC, organizing
such guidelines by court type would have resulted in duplication. For example,
since each court has a Clerk's Office, information for this major category of space
would have to be repeated multiple times. To avoid this problem, the design
guidelines are organized by major court functions and spaces. All design
guidelines for courtrooms, including design tables, SRAC diagrams, and specific
design guidelines are organized in a single chapter. This allows the A/E design
team working on the planning and design of courtrooms to get all required
guidelines in one chapter.
Chapter 4: Courtrooms contains specific design guidelines for USCA, USDC,
magistrate judge, and USBC courtrooms.
Tables 4.1 through 4.4 list the major functional areas of the USCA, USDC
including magistrate judges, and USBC courtrooms. The tables provide an
itemization of user stations and functional areas within the courtroom, immediate
ancillary spaces for storage and review of exhibits, and soundlocks from the
public corridor.
Chapter 5: Judges' Chambers Suites describes specific design guidelines for
chambers suites of USCA, USDC, magistrate, and USBC judges.
Tables 5.1 through 5.4 list the functional areas within the chambers suites of
USCA, USDC, magistrate, and USBC judges. Table 5.5 lists the sizes of specific
areas found in chambers suites.
Chapter 6: Ancillary Facilities defines specific design guidelines for judges'
conference rooms, robing rooms, and conference/robing room; attorney lounge;
attorney conference/witness waiting room; public waiting area; court
reporter/recorder facilities; news media room; and alternate dispute resolution
suite.
Tables 6.1 through 6.4 list ancillary facilities for both courtrooms and chambers
suites. Spaces unique to the USCA, USDC, and USBC are listed separately.
Chapter 7: Jury Facilities describes specific design guidelines for the jury
assembly room, trial jury suite, and grand jury suite.
Tables 7.1 through 7.4 list required jury facilities. The tables are divided into three
sections to address each of the three jury-related facilities.
Chapter 8: Central Court Libraries contains specific design guidelines for the
headquarters circuit library, satellite library, and unstaffed library.
Introduction-10
12/19/97
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