Allegany County Courthouse Addition and Renovation

Allegany County needed to bring their historic courthouse, a three-story brick structure constructed in 1938, into compliance with the Court Facilities Capital Plan Act of 1987. The project was studied several times – first in 1989, again in 1999, and lastly in 2005 – before the dispute between Allegany County and New York State was finally resolved, resulting in a project that would comply with the 1987 state mandate.

In 2002, as part of this process, LaBella Associates conducted a comprehensive facilities assessment that included examining the required adjacencies for specific County and court functions, interviewing department heads, and collaborating closely with the legislative committee and the Office of Court Administration (OCA).

Specifically, the assessment analyzed the following elements:

• Existing and future needs of Allegany County’s court system, including determination of whether the floor plan of the courthouse facility could be reconstituted to satisfy the needs of the courts or if a new facility would be required
• Existing and future (up to 10 years) physical space needs of all County administrative agencies
• Existing and future needs for jail cell space and recommendation of the type and size of facility required to accommodate such needs.

Following the facilities assessment, LaBella designed a 41,700 SF, three-story addition to Allegany County’s courthouse that provides adequate space for County and family court, support magistrate, and prisoner transport functions.

The addition houses court functions and offices for the County’s central IT department, as well as space for the Treasurer’s office, the Real Property Tax office, and the Department of Social Services Support Collections unit. The addition also includes unassigned shell space for future use. Furthermore, court security was embellished to ensure the entire campus complied with the public entrance requirements for a single point of entry facility.

With the completion of this project, all Allegany County court functions were finally united under one roof for the first time in over two decades. And, while the expanded facility features a very efficient layout, the design should accommodate the County’s court needs for the next 50 years.