SAVANNAH, Ga.—Chatham County, Georgia, recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly constructed Chatham County Eugene H. Gadsden Courthouse in Savannah.
Dewberry, a privately held professional services firm, performed architectural, courtroom technology, interior design, and security services for the courthouse.
Set in the historic district of the Oglethorpe plan in Savannah, the courthouse stands four stories tall and comprises 155,000 square feet; it includes a dozen new courtrooms and associated judicial chambers for Georgia’s State Court and Superior Court. Other building functions include jury assembly and administrative spaces for the Superior and State Court Clerk’s offices.
The building was designed to meet current flood and earthquake requirements and to exceed the local hurricane wind code requirements. The building is LEED© certified.
“It’s extremely rewarding to see the new courthouse come to fruition after many years of collaboration with the county,” commented Dewberry Senior Principal Jim Beight, AIA, LEED AP, NCARB. “The building was designed to relate to the city plan of Savannah as designed by Lieutenant General James Oglethorpe, which is well known for its gridded organization of streets and squares.”
The project underwent thorough public review and was designed to accompany Savannah’s historic architecture while also reinforcing the city’s network of streets and squares. The design of the building visually re-established York Lane, which had been lost by prior development; this was achieved through the bifurcation of the courthouse into two halves. One half houses the courts while the other half houses administrative spaces. A four-story atrium joins these two components, which repairs the urban fabric of the original city plan.
The courthouse is named in honor of Judge Eugene H. Gadsden, the first African-American appointed to the Chatham County Superior Court.
The project took more than three years to complete after the Chatham County Commission awarded the $71.5 million construction contract to J.E. Dunn Construction Company. The final cost reportedly came in at $78 million.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Chatham County Chairman Chester Ellis and Superior Court Senior Judge Michael L. Karpfspoke commented on the courthouse’s long-awaited completion, with Judge Karpf joking that he had to “pinch himself” to make sure he was still alive to see it.
