Pittsburgh
IKM Incorporated

Photography © Edward Massery

The preservation and adaptive reuse of H.H. Richardson's Allegheny County Jail was preceded by a decade-long struggle to find a purpose for the architectural monument, abandoned in 1993, and to put financing in place. Its rebirth required the determination of many area champions including: Allegheny County officials, members of the preservation community and local architects, IKM Incorporated. The group persevered in their efforts to convince others of the necessity for preservation. Their persistence held strong as the building was vacated of prisoners; as deterioration set-in, and throughout a period of County budget freezes.

To save the building, IKM Incorporated presented a design incorporating a method of inserting a new floor structure in place of the five-story-tall freestanding cellblocks, thus introducing the space to house County Court functions. And through an innovative design/build/lease-sublease arrangement with Mascaro Construction Company, Allegheny County was able to arrest deterioration of the landmark building and consolidate 400 Family Court employees and operations from two separate, crowded buildings.

The $34 million construction project began in December 1998. The design-build team of IKM Incorporated – Mascaro Construction Company completed the historic renovation on time and on budget. By October 2000, the Allegheny County Jail was resurrected as the home of the Family Division of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, which occupies the 200,000 GSF within the walls of the Historic Structure.

For more on this project please see the October 2001 issue of Architectural Record.

The Winners: Chesapeake Bay | Corning Museum | Dulwich Galllery | Kuhonji Temple Gate | LVMH Tower | Pedestrian Bridge | Phillips Plastics | Saitama Arena | SAP Headquarters | Chiller Plant | Wieden + Kennedy Headquarters

The Finalists: Allegheny Jail | Hansen Construction | Helmut Lang Perfumerie | Herman Miller Showroom | Lincoln St. Garage | TBWA/Chiat/Day | U.S. Courthouse | Westpac Stadium

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