From the charm of a century-old courthouse to the ultra-modern environs of a brand new judicial center-that`s the step the Du Page County judicial system will make next week.
The various sizes of the courtrooms won`t change much, said Michael Formento, County Board member and chairman of the Judicial and Public Safety Committee, but what was once housed under several roofs will be consolidated under one.
”The whole environment is totally different,” said Formento.
The old Courthouse on Reber Street in Wheaton was built in the late 1800s, said Nancy Hauptman, deputy executive assistant to the County Board.
Formento describes the red brick structure as ”a lovely, classic old building,” when viewed from the front.
”When you look at it from the side, you see this 1940 (addition) stuck on the back of it,” Formento said.
History has made its mark on the building in other respects. For example, there`s a jail addition, featuring relatively modern architecture, Formento said.
Escalating space needs prompted the court system and its adjunct services to take over surrounding buildings: There`s a separate building for the state`s attorney`s office, a probation building, a building for the civil division and an annex, Formento said.
The new Du Page County Judicial Center is an all-inclusive facility at 505 N. County Farm Rd., Wheaton, adjacent to the County Government Center.
”We lose the character, we lose the architectural pleasure of the (old)
building,” Formento said. ”(But) there wasn`t any place you could escape to to calm yourself, to collect yourself. It was a noise factory.”
Each of the 34 courtrooms in the new, four-story, 359,000-square foot center has a vestibule and a separate conference area off the common hallway, making lawyer-client conversations over the din of a congested corridor a thing of the past, Formento hopes.
Though the courtrooms themselves aren`t more spacious than the old ones,
”they are designed better to allow visibility to the jury, the defendants and the judge as well,” Formento said.
The average third-floor courtroom at the new judicial facility has 1,230 square feet; those on the second floor average 800 square feet, said Formento. Smaller courtrooms seat between 45 and 70 people; the larger courtrooms can accommodate about 100 spectators, Formento said.
One courtroom has been designated as the ceremonial courtroom and will be used for such special occasions as the installation of new judges. The room, larger and more elegant than the other courtrooms, will also be used for daily courtroom proceedings, Formento said.
The new building also has a cafeteria that seats 330 people as compared to the old 30-seat cafeteria.
And the furniture in the new building is standardized throughout.
The color scheme, he said, relies heavily on blues and mauves. The old courthouse ”didn`t have a color scheme. It was a patchwork quilt,” Formento said, and its interior decor consisted of ”a potpourri of used, reused and new furniture.”
The new center also boasts state-of-the-art telephone and security systems, Formento said. And there is a centralized heating and air
conditioning system, something the old courthouse lacked.
”Sometimes you could open a window when it got hot and sometimes you couldn`t,” Hauptman said. In some offices, no windows needed to be opened because there were room air conditioners.
”There was never air conditioning in the public corridors where people had to stand and wait,” said Formento.
The new judicial center houses the circuit court clerk`s office, the Probation Department and the cafeteria on the first floor. The second floor includes administration offices, 15 courtrooms and a law library. State`s attorneys` offices share the third floor with the court reporters` area and nine courtrooms; eleven more courtrooms are on the fourth floor, where the public defender`s office and the grand jury room are also housed.
Though the available space in the building is generous by today`s standards, the building was planned with an eye to the future, Formento said. ”It`s an interesting concept in building. Should we have to see expansion into more courtroom space, offices on the second, third and fourth floors could be converted into courtrooms,” Formento said.
