King County Courthouse

Brief Overview

Skanska addressed numerous challenges during its extensive renovation of the King County Courthouse, meeting each head-on while shaving five months off the original 27-month schedule and saving the owner more than $8 million.

The structural seismic upgrades to the 90-year-old downtown Seattle structure involved the installation of a unique performance frame/outrigger system along with hybrid concrete and steel moment frames; tasks that touched nearly every department of the courthouse. Despite the renovation's invasive nature, the busy courthouse remained occupied and functioning throughout the duration of the project.

The courthouse houses numerous sensitive departments, including the county's 911 center, the Sheriff's office and superior court facilities. Keeping such functions running without interruption was so critical that the county employed three full-time staffers tasked exclusively with planning and executing department relocations. Skanska performed noisy work at night and brought steel and concrete into the building using a complex routing system so the courthouse's employees and its users would remain largely unaffected.