Schaefer Lewis Engineers, P.C.

Rensselaer County
Court Complex

The second and final phase of the County Courthouse facility upgrades included renovation and restoration of the Main Courthouse, Second Street Annex and Third Street Annex.

Full occupancy was maintained during construction by using swing space created by relocation of the Family Court to the renovated former County Jail in the first phase of the project.

Existing independent heating and cooling systems were replaced with a new central plant to reduce maintenance and improve efficiency and reliability. The Main Courthouse heating plant and the electric service were displaced during the early stages of construction which required the temporary rerouting of services to enable the building to remain occupied.

Mechanical systems were selected to improve overall acoustics in the sensitive courtroom spaces. Air distribution included a mixture of variable air volume for support spaces and constant volume systems for the acoustically sensitive areas. Air handling equipment location was carefully coordinated to minimize structure borne noise.

One of the biggest challenges was incorporating current state-of-the-art building systems in a turn of the century courthouse without impacting the historic character of the building.