U.S. Court Facilities
office use to court use, providing for vehicle access and parking within the building and
providing remote tenant storage.
Internal Circulation Factors (Intra-Agency or Intra-Department). GSA assigns
"occupiable area" to Federal tenants. GSA defines "occupiable area" (in the FPMR) as "that
portion of the gross area which is available for use by an occupant's personnel or furnishings .
. . [and includes that space] used to provide [internal] circulation" (circulation within the area
assigned to the tenant agency). The GSA terms "occupiable area" and "net usable space" are
synonymous with "occupiable area" (referring to tenant-assigned space in GSA-owned
facilities), and "net usable space" (referring to tenant-assigned spaces in leased facilities). The
term "NSF," as used in the table contained in the USCDG, is not synonymous with the GSA
definition.
The USCDG requires an internal circulation factor of 20 to 40 percent of the total net area
programmed for a particular facility. However, it is critical that the factor be considered
carefully, because factors may be higher for some areas than others. The internal circulation
factor depends on many issues, including building configuration, the average size and depth
of the spaces served by the circulation (e.g., the amount of internal circulation required for
many small workstations may be higher than for one large room), and the general design
intention of the area ("compressed" versus "spacious").
Based on these criteria alone, it is appropriate to use different internal circulation factors for a
number of different tenants and areas, such as (1) office areas for the Clerk of Court, U.S.
Probation Service, or pretrial services; (2) U.S. Courts library areas; (3) areas on the
courtroom floors; (4) special areas such as the judicial chamber suites and jury deliberation
suites; (5) building support areas controlled by GSA; and so forth. In addition, if the tenant
desires partitioned circulation both within and external to a judge's chamber suite, the
minimum factor may not be adequate. However, caution must be used in the design, as a
high factor overall will be compounded with the GSA massing factor, leading to a more
costly building.
Since "internal circulation" is included in the definition of "occupiable space" leased by the
U.S. Courts, GSA does not define the internal circulation factors for court spaces.
Instead, GSA will ask the AOC for the appropriate factors to develop the PDS for U.S. Court
projects.
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April 5, 1996
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