Erin Persky, Associate AIA, CCHP
In conjunction with the American Institute of Architects—Academy of Architecture for Justice Research Committee and a multidisciplinary advisory committee, Jay Farbstein, Erin Persky, and Melissa Farling have developed a Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) “Toolkit” for Courthouses. Over the course of the next five AAJ Journal issues, POE lessons learned and recommendations will be shared based on the information gathered during a pilot POE conducted to test the Toolkit instruments and methodologies. This article will introduce the Toolkit, including the instruments and goals for its use.
The Courthouse POE Toolkit is configured to offer building evaluations of a broad range of scopes and depths of analysis. The Toolkit consists of:
- Guidance on planning the POE;
- Information-gathering instruments;
- On-site fieldwork recommendations;
- Suggestions on how to analyze the findings and present the report.
In determining whether to conduct a POE and how to proceed with it, it is essential to be explicit about the goals and types of information that are desired, as well as available resources. It may be that a relatively brief POE, with a tour of the building and interviews with the court and building managers, may suffice. On the other hand, much more detail may be desired or even required, especially if a set of comparative POEs is being considered.
The Toolkit provides the opportunity to gather and analyze information about several aspects of a building’s performance. Examples of areas investigated during a courthouse POE include, but are not limited to:
- Functional area operations; for example, the usefulness of clerk service windows, effectiveness of maps and signage, and the efficiency of security screening areas;
- User satisfaction; including workstation comfort, user access to natural light, adequacy of support spaces, etc.;
- Maintenance requirements and technical performance; such as frequency of equipment or repairs, condition of materials, or performance of MEP systems;
- Safety and security; assessed through evaluations of central holding facilities, the performance of security systems and user satisfaction, etc.;
- Energy and environmental sustainability; for example, water and energy usage, utility costs, material selection, and waste management protocols. (Sustainability assessments are not provided in the Toolkit, but recommendations for validated instruments are recommended.)
Generally, less resource- and labor-intensive POEs would gather fewer types of information, namely perhaps only quantitative data, whereas more intensive POEs might gather several types of data, i.e., both quantitative and qualitative. For any level POE, however, it is highly recommended that multiple methods of data collection be utilized since it is always valuable to look at an issue from multiple perspectives.
The Courthouse POE Toolkit includes the following data-gathering instruments:
- Plan Review Form: aids in documentation of the physical characteristics of and functions within the courthouse building and its site;
- Building Conditions Survey and Interview: evaluate the condition and performance of many features of the materials and systems of the courthouse. A more detailed semi-structured interview is also provided to be completed with the facilities manager about courthouse features as a follow-up to issues that may have arisen during the building conditions survey tour;
- Court Employee Survey: assesses the degree to which the design of the courthouse building supports the work-related tasks carried out by courthouse staff. Topics include the courthouse site, building access, staff areas and workspaces, and courtroom functionality;
- Visitor Survey: assesses the degree to which the design of the courthouse supports the functions people visit the courthouse to accomplish. Topics include the courthouse site, building access, wayfinding, safety, circulation, specific publicly accessible functional areas, the courtroom, and designated jury spaces.
Detailed instructions for the administration of these instruments are included with each. Opportunities to collect various amounts of data are built into each instrument to allow options with regard to the depth of analysis conducted. For example, the Building Conditions Survey supports quantitative data collection by means of a checklist for rating the performance of many courthouse building and site features. Additionally, the survey offers space for commentary on each area in case elaboration is required.
The Building Conditions Interview, the complement to the survey, supports entirely qualitative data collection via an in-depth, open-ended set of questions to allow for more thorough evaluation. Furthermore, redundancy is built into the forms to obtain multiple perspectives on courthouse functions. Information can be cross-referenced against other instrument data to develop a more robust understanding of areas of inquiry that architects and other POE users can use to identify and solve existing problems.
The POE Toolkit is part of a broad effort by the AIA to disseminate knowledge pertaining to best practices in justice facility design. As such, Toolkit users will be asked to agree in advance to share their data and findings. The results, anonymous and aggregated, will contribute to a database of information about courthouse design that will inform substantial improvement in the field and allow researchers to examine the relationships among physical variables of courthouse design and their outcomes.
While a single POE can provide very valuable feedback to the clients, users, and designers of that particular building, as a “case study” it may be of little interest or value in terms of drawing general conclusions or ones that can be applied to future designs. On the other hand, when many POEs are performed the opportunity to draw general conclusions about lessons learned is greatly enhanced. Conducting regular POEs provides the opportunity for continuous improvement in building standards, procedures, designs, and operations.
There is little precedent for a systemized catalog of evidence-based design strategies specific to building type. The Toolkit structure, as a function of the use of standardized instruments, supports consistency in the types of data collected and the means by which collection is completed. The database of results affords direct comparison of the data collected on multiple types of courthouse-specific design strategies to determine which are most effective. This data aggregation is particularly effective for building types that contain repetitive building programs, as is the case with courthouses. As application of best practices is crucial for the evolution of justice facility design, and access to evidence-based design strategies is of the utmost importance for ensuring that design decisions reflect best practices, this database will simplify aggregation and access to the latest evidence-based design data pertaining to courthouses.
The data collected can be used to contribute to the body of knowledge pertaining to courthouse design. Research studies can be conducted utilizing the data collected via the toolkit, resulting in substantial time and resource savings. This data can also contribute to the development and refinement of courthouse design guidelines.
The benefits of post-occupancy evaluation as part of the overall building performance evaluation process cannot be overstated. The goals of this Courthouse POE Toolkit are to streamline the process of conducting building evaluations, to increase the frequency with which POEs are conducted, and to encourage courthouse research endeavors, in order to support the widespread application of best practices to courthouse design.
Thank you to the POE Advisory Committee: Jim Beight, Dewberry; Michael LeBoeuf, Dewberry; Clifford Ham, Judicial Council of California; Frank Greene, RicciGreene; Larry Hartman, HDR; Debajyoti Pati, Texas Tech University; Richard Wener, NYU; Robert Andrukonis, GSA; Marcus Reinkensmeyer, Supreme Court of Arizona.
A hard copy of the pilot POE report will be available at the 2017 AAJ Conference in Cincinnati for interested Toolkit users to peruse. Questions can be directed to Erin Persky at erinpersky@gmail.com.
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Erin Persky is a justice facility planner based in San Diego, California, and 2017 Chair of the AAJ Leadership Group.
(Return to the cover of the 2017 AAJ Journal Q3 issue)