The team at Murphy & Dittenhafer Architects expect to produce a final design for the building by spring, and construction should take about a year.
The creative minds at Murphy & Dittenhafer Architects conceive buildings that earn design awards and gain recognition for their energy efficiency.
But long before those honors can be bestowed, the Architects must understand the needs of the people who will use a building day in and day out.
That means asking the right questions to help a client visualize what is possible.
Architects Todd Grove and Jonathan Taube are one month into designing a new building for the Carroll County State's Attorney's Office. They have worked together very successfully on other M&D projects during recent years. In this case, Grove has supervisory responsibility for the work.
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The OSA is the county’s chief law enforcement agency, prosecuting all criminal cases. It includes a Major Offender Unit, Special Victim Unit, Economic Crimes Unit, and county Drug Court. The office administers the county’s district and circuit courts.
When the agency sought proposals for a new building, Murphy & Dittenhafer stepped forward to demonstrate the firm’s qualifications and experience – and with a conceptual design for this type of new municipal facility. After an in-house conversation among the Architects about the nature of such a structure, Grove and Taube met with county officials, the prospective clients.
“At times, we will take in visuals, not because we have figured out a design for the new building but more so to demonstrate how we would work, the kind of conceptual drawings and images we can produce to help a client visualize a new facility,” Grove explains. “It’s more about establishing a relationship.”
“We usually provide them with a preliminary program,” Taube adds. “We take a shot at it to demonstrate our understanding of the program.” In this case, he says, “They were really receptive.”
Focusing on needs
After coming onboard with a client, the Architects meet with those who will use the building to determine their needs and how they work. In this project, for example, there must be private settings for sensitive conversations, as well as secure storage for evidence and documents.
“There is a Special Victim Unit that has special requirements,” Taube notes. “You need a hospitable feeling in that space, where children can be comfortable while their parents are interviewed.”
“We try to get out of them what their vision is for the project,” Grove says. “What do they think it should look like? It’s interesting how sometimes the initial sketch we show them is on target and an actual starting point” for creating several options.
“It’s really important to ask the right questions,” Taube says.
From those conversations, the Architects develop computer-generated schematic floor plans that lay out public and private spaces; suggest the location of offices, work stations, break rooms, doors, and windows; and address the need for expansion.
The OSA wants to locate its roughly 50 employees in one building, with updated information technology and data capabilities that it lacks at its current main site in downtown Westminister which has become crowded. One key need in the new three-story structure is a training room for regional workers.
The location of departments is important to the agency’s workflow.
“A department that interfaces with the public is better near the main entrance on the first floor,” Grove points out.
Attention to detail
The exterior of the building is another major consideration.
“We’re at a point in the design where we’re asking ourselves about what a state attorney’s office should look like in a historic town such as Westminster in a campus of existing county buildings with their own architectural styles,” Grove says. “We want the new building to look comfortable in its setting.”
The Architects will weigh the use of steel or masonry components, which might be decided by local building codes. The type of construction can affect elements of the design, Taube notes, including the location of stairways and sprinkler systems, or the length of a hallway.
Grove and Taube meet with County officials on a monthly basis to go over the developing plans and get feedback. Then they return to the “drawing board” to refine the design before reviewing it with County officials the next month.
The Architects expect to produce a final design for the building by spring. Construction, Grove says, should take about a year.
Still early in the process, some elements remain undetermined, such as a plan for employee and visitor parking. Those factors can affect the layout of a building, Taube explains.
“Sometimes,” he says, “this phase reveals the need to move things around.”
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