Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 26
>> item number 26, consider and take appropriate action on schematic design recommendations.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
ken gatey with Travis County facilities management department.
I'm here just to introduce this item which is the presentation and approval of schematic design for the first and second floors of 700 lavaca.
I have with me today members of the project management team of h s&a as well as the members of the architectural joint venture firm of lawrence group and gsc who will be presenting the schematic design.
and with that said, I would like to turn the presentation over to dave with hsa.
>> thanks, ken, good morning, judge and Commissioners.
you may recall that we have been going through this process for several months now in the design phase, and during -- during such projects we have certain milestones to seek your approval, and we're at one of those milestones now which is the schematic design completion.
as ken alluded to, we have the architects here to make the presentation.
I would like to introduce earl swisher and tom, both of loom are with the lawrence group.
they've done a terrific job taking all the input from not only y'all but the other users and melding this into a design that we currently have that's manageable within our time and budget constraints.
so without burdening us any more I would like to turn it over to them and let them talk you through it and then we'll close with a request for approval.
>> thanks, dave.
can everybody hear all right?
again, my name is earl swisher with the lawrence group.
we're delighted to be here to present the schematic design.
I'll give a general introduction and turn it over to my partner tom to present details.
we're presenting levels 1 and 2 of 700 lavaca and this is a floor plan larger than those distributed before.
it's the first floor plan of the 700 lavaca building.
within the building we have our area of construction which is up page of this line.
everything down page of that line is the public lobby and elevators.
and within this first floor we have the Commissioners courtroom and their associated spaces.
we have the treasurer's department and we have the media.
and with that I'll turn it over to tom.
>> good morning.
the thing that I think to be brief we want to highlight about the first floor is what we call the hall of government, the central sort of heart of the design.
it's in the middle of the space.
it's all the people who come to the building for functions here will use that space.
off of that, as earl said, we have a number of pieces.
we have the television production component, which is about the production of what happens in this room.
we have the treasurer's suite, which is another first floor specific element.
we've got the Commissioners court, which for this building as an architect when you have a building that has a spectacular room like this one that we inherit, we look at the best way to take advantage of that.
we did several studies and the idea of setting up the dais and along with the integrity of that space is the design that's in place right now.
then we also have another big room within the space which is multi function.
it's the kind of room that can operate as smaller rooms or be combined into one large room.
there is a lot of inner work goes behind the Commissioners court that allow it to operate in terms of minutia.
and those are the fundamental elements of how this floor works.
earl can describe the second floor then.
>> on the second floor, we have the offices of three Commissioners.
we have judge Biscoe's office and we have a central area coming out of the elevators.
the central area, as tom is pointing out at the elevators, become the hub of the floor plan.
and then off of that hub we have circulation corridors that we tried to create a very clear circulation pattern.
in that building today it's a very complex for plan on the second level.
I know you all have been there.
we're trying to simplify that so it's easy for the user.
we have created the Commissioners' suites, they are prototypical in nature in they are all very similar in a similar prototype layout, however, because of the eccentricity of the building and geometry of this diagonal geometry each has a little bit of a -- their subtle differences but they are all the same square footage with the same functions.
that would be the Commissioners' suite, the Commissioners' suite off the central corridor and the Commissioners' suite and judge Biscoe's suite here.
we also have hoteling on this floor for the attorneys who do business here and then we have a general hoteling suite which means an office away from your office.
someplace where you can conduct business while you are getting ready to present to Commissioners court.
we have conference rooms spread throughout.
break rooms spread throughout.
as you would in any office setting.
that basically is our presentation today.
>> judge, we would like to open it up for any questions you may have.
>> court members, any questions?
I've been briefed before.
>> I've been briefed as well.
really appreciate it.
>> just for the record, what you refer to as judge Biscoe's suites, really the county judge's suites, right?
>> the county judge's suites.
>> it's the county judge's suite.
>> [laughter]
>> so noted.
>> now, five years ago I would have really appreciated that distinction.
I've learned better.
questions?
thank you very much.
I move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion on the motion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank you all again.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> now a couple of real quick items before we get to the 10:30 item.
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