36th District Court is a feasibility study regarding the renovation of the existing courthouse located in downtown Detroit.  The building, originally converted from the former Hudson’s warehouse, is a tremendously busy facility, and is overloaded in its current configuration.  The complex program consists of many interlocking government agencies, use types, and secure/public spaces all of which had to be considered when studying the ways to better utilize the building’s available space.
The feasibility study, carried out by a team of architects including Kraemer Design Group, the original architect of the courthouse, and a leading criminal justice architecture firm, proposed a solution that looked to expand many of the existing courthouse agencies into the underutilized upper floors of the building, while gently reconfiguring the lower floors to better accommodate both public and secure traffic flow through the space.

The study also proposed a new underground parking garage to be used as a safe entry for judges and as a new sally port for the secure transfer of prisoners into the courthouse.  Additionally, a renovated public square would be created atop the garage to honor the U.S. justice system and its relationship to the civil rights struggles of generations past.

The study’s findings were published in a booklet as a series of diagrammatic plans intended to clearly show the various programmatic elements of the court and how those elements could be repurposed within the existing space.