U.S. Court Facilities
In response to this need, GSA will build to the 10-year court's requirements, but also plan for
the 30-year needs of the courts. GSA will design future U.S. Court projects to develop
conceptual design options which address not only the approved program included in the PDS,
but which also address the needs of the 30-year plan provided by the U.S. Courts. The
preliminary concepts must show both the total 30-year plan, whether that be by later addition
or deferred tenant fit-out, and the portions to be built within the prospectus.
If land cost or availability is such that future horizontal expansion is precluded, GSA will
design areas of the building that will be courtrooms in the future to have bay spacing and
floor loading suitable for such use. The design will have vertical shaft locations for future
location of prisoner and judicial circulation systems that will be planned for easy and logical
expansion. Future judges' chamber suites, however, will initially be designed for GSA office
floor loading, with a structural system that can be reinforced in the future if the suite requires
higher floor loading when it is built. GSA will use building grossing factors which
accommodate larger public circulation on floors designated for future conversion to
courtrooms from office-type tenants. In other words, building grossing figures to be used in
calculating the expected factors and construction cost budgets on court projects will be based
on the future projected distribution of space types, rather than the distribution of space types
at occupancy. This means that on initial occupancy there may be more occupiable space in
the building than at the completion of a 30-year plan.
When office space is converted to special space in the future, all costs incurred at the time of
conversion will be considered to be initial space alteration. For courtrooms, this would also
include the increased size and finish of public circulation.
Page 10
April 5, 1996
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