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Calgary Courts Centre is sustainable, adaptable and secure
The $300-million (CAD), one million square foot, Calgary Courts Centre (CCC), which has been designed to meet LEED® Silver, is the largest courthouse in Canada and the third largest in North America.
The CCC represents the ideal that justice should be open and accessible to all, resulting in a design solution focused on "transparency". The building has two towers, 20 and 24 storeys' respectively, which are joined by a prominent 26-storey glazed central atrium which has become the “heart” of the CCC. The design makes extensive use of glass and windows and achieves a high level of unobtrusive security.
The Provincial Court of Alberta, the Court of the Queen’s Bench (Federal) and an Aboriginal Courtroom are all housed within the CCC. By having these courts amalgamated in the same facility, court processes have been streamlined by at least 20 per cent.
The CCC allows for future flexibility with the transformation of public registry floors into future courtroom floors, and is designed to be easily expanded westward.
The facility strikes a balance between a complex that grows naturally out of the surroundings but still respects the “sense of place” within Calgary’s downtown core.
Giving back to the community, the CCC’s easterly block will be converted into a major civic park. Employees benefit from several healthy living initiatives within the courthouse and the public benefits by being afforded an “urban oasis” in the city core.
The CCC responds to a stakeholder vision of “a dignified contemporary facility, accessible to all that stands in the community as the embodiment of democratic rights, individual freedoms and justice.”
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