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Islip Federal Courthouse and Office Building
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Syska Hennessy Group provided engineering design services for this
award winning, 700,000 square foot federal building and courthouse
located in Islip, New York. Syska worked closely with the architect,
Richard Meier & Partners, to create a highly energy-efficient
and aesthetically pleasing structure that meets the needs of the
current building configuration, plus that of a 30 year plan for
the future.
Current building needs called for a combination of office space
and courtrooms, however, the building use will change dramatically,
when an adjacent office building is built in the future. Syska’s
mechanical and electrical design takes into account the 30-year
plan calling for the building to house only courtrooms with a new
200,000 square foot office building to be built on the same site.
The design of the building conforms to the GSA PBS/PQ-100 and the
United States Courts Design Guide.
Islip Federal Courthouse
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To ensure the most cost and energy efficient building system design,
Syska held three value-engineering sessions at separate stages of
the project with input from GSA, courts representatives, the construction
manager and the design team.
The HVAC system design innovations include an electrical centrifugal
chiller, hot water boiler and a low temperature air system for air
conditioning.
Beyond the rotunda of the building, an atrium bisects the 11-story,
733,000 sq. ft. main building. This large atrium, which runs through
all floors of the building, required special attention regarding
smoke management. Syska conducted a computerized smoke management
analysis was performed and, with the assistance of GSA, specific
criteria were established for sizing the smoke exhaust.
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Islip Federal Courthouse and Office Building
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On one side of the atrium there are five bankruptcy courtrooms
and on the other side there are 17 district and magistrate courtrooms.
The clerk's office, cafeteria, jury assembly room and ceremonial
courtroom can be reached from the atrium. The rear portion of the
building houses the judges' chambers, allowing them to enter courtrooms
from the rear without entering public corridors. Elevator shafts
reserved for transporting defendants to and from holding cells are
located between the courtrooms.
The Islip Federal Courthouse was awarded GSA's Design Excellence
Award in 2001.
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