Essex County Wynona Lipman Family Courthouse

French & Parrello Associates (FPA) was retained by Comito Associates, PC to provide engineering design and construction services for a new office building for the Essex County Family Courts. The building has a total space area of approximately 276,000 square feet, distributed among a partial basement and eight stories, and consists of the following: Sheriff’s Department, sallyport, lockers, Youth and Adult Holding, Child Support Services, Finance, Legal, Matrimonial, judge’s chambers, courtrooms, training, files, conference, office and workstation spaces.

The HVAC work included a central boiler and an air-cooled chiller with four-pipe system, as well as outside air via dedicated energy recovery units (ERU). Fan coil units were located per space to provide flexibility in controlling the HVAC system. Domestic hot water was provided by point-of-use heaters. The building is fully sprinklered and the data center is fire protected via a pre-action system. Low-flow, energy efficient plumbing fixtures were specified throughout the building. The electric scope included the design of an emergency generator for the building’s emergency loads. VFD’s were utilized extensively for all pumps and air handlers. Emergency power was provided by a natural gas generator. Fire alarm, security, IT data, and voice systems were extended to the complex’s main server. Audio-visual systems were provided throughout the building and in the court rooms.

The electric work also included the design of four (4) roof-mounted natural gas emergency generators to supply building emergency power. These support the life safety systems (fire pump, fire protection, fire alarm, elevator egress and egress lighting,) and designated equipment and systems including security and IT. The security system design included the Sheriff’s Department Detention Systems, a building-wide CCTV system, and a card access system. Duress alarm and intercom systems were specified in detention areas and other designated locations. The voice/data system included data racks with UPS backup at the racks, as well as wiring to systems and workstations throughout the building. Audio-visual systems were provided throughout the building and in the court rooms.