Snohomish County Campus Redevelopment Initiative
Mortenson/NBBJ

Both the architect, NBBJ, Seattle, and the general contractor, construction manager Mortenson, Bellevue, Wash., were honored with the award for the Best Public Project in Washington. NBBJ designed the Snohomish County Campus and Mortenson acted as the general contractor/construction manager.

Constructed in the heart of downtown Everett, Wash., under the very noses of the owner, the $175 million project consisted of several buildings: a 269,000-sq.-ft. 640 bed correctional facility, a 175,000-sq.-ft. administrative building, a 1,200 car parking garage and a remodel of the existing campus buildings. A large public plaza adds to the atmosphere of the new county campus.

Especially sensitive is the design of the new jail, with its glass exterior. The facade virtually obscures the windows during the day but creates a lantern like effect during the night.

To ease the existing over crowding, the new structure provides 384 cells for 640 inmates while adding larger updated facilities for the entire project. Wherever possible, support spaces were consolidated to serve the entire facility. This cuts down on staff time transporting inmates between housing modules and visitation areas. Use of Personal Digital Assistants allows officers to circulate throughout the module while having functional control over the area. The project team also used 3D MEP coordination.

The housing modules are designed to separate violent and petty criminals.

NBBJ and Mortenson joined Snohomish County and in the planning phases of the project, to work with the neighbors who opposed construction of a jail so close a residential area. One of the primary goals of the building design, was to make the jail look more like an office building than a correctional facility.

A primary task of the project team was managing the news media, who also had a front row seat at the job site, and the 3,000 public visitors every day. At the same time, the team worked to keep all the county business running. Mortenson's site-specific Disruption Avoidance Plan minimized and mitigated these impacts. For instance, the contractor constructed a new jail adjacent to the existing one, with tie-ins in three locations, all the while maintaining important security measures.

From a planning, logistics and construction perspective the project was extremely complex, including the close coordination of over 56 prime subcontractors and an additional 115 sub tier contractors.

Mortenson performed extensive constructability reviews on each major phase of the project and contributed value engineering suggestions that resulted in $3.5 million in savings. They delivered the parking garage a year ahead of time and allowed 200 stalls to still be used during construction, adding to the county revenue stream. Mortenson also changed the location of the main electrical vault, which prevented significant electrical rerouting.

One of the many construction challenges confronted on the project was placement of 60 miles of lighting, power and security conduit and 400 miles of wire, all of which was embedded in the concrete decks between two rebar mats, requiring a great deal of patience and flexibility.

Project Team:
Owner: Snohomish County
Architect: NBBJ, Seattle
Contractor: Mortenson, Seattle

Return to list