The Madison County, VA Board of Supervisors elected to have all major county administrative functions consolidated onto one campus. The project ultimately collocated off-site county offices with offices at the existing county administration building at 414 North Main Street, and the adjacent, vacant, former health department building at 410 North Main Street. The project also included interior renovation of the Board of Supervisors Chamber. Both buildings are single story; 410 N. Main of IIIB wood-framed construction; and 414 N. Main of IIB masonry construction. After public bidding, and a rebid, the project came in at or within the County’s budget parameters and was approved by the Board of Supervisors. There were subsequent, minor budget adjustments, both additions and credits, during the VE and construction phases.
NSA began the project with a space needs study. Information was gathered from survey forms and interviews with department heads and key personnel, measured surveys of current office spaces, and inventories of furnishings and equipment. One key datum was a listing from each department of other departments to which immediate access was needed. The three departments which indicated a common need for close proximity were Treasurer, Commissioner of Revenue and Building and Zoning. This was instrumental in preparing proposed programming arrangements which were presented to the department heads for final selection.
The sequence of construction for the two buildings and the relocation of departments with minimal interruption to operations were carefully planned by NSA and the client’s representative – the County Administrator. Since the Commissioner of Revenue, the Treasurer and Building and Zoning were in the existing administration building, and their departments needed direct access to one another, their new spaces were to be in 410 N. Main. Once construction was completed, those three departments moved into their respective new spaces. The County Administrator’s office, also in the existing administrative building, and where it would preside at the conclusion of the project, vacated temporarily to the larger conference room in 410 N. Main until renovation was completed in 414 N. Main.
Most of the interior partitions of 410 N. Main were removed. New construction included accommodation for improved public service within each department. To provide county residents with a more discrete interaction with the Treasurer’s department, four transaction windows were designed in the department’s reception space, one of which is handicap accessible. The Treasurer’s department also gained a generous increase in file storage capacity, and countertop workspace. In the Commissioner of Revenue’s new space, the public and department staff will have the use of a large countertop providing ample space for laying out and reviewing plats and other documents. Staff will also have increased secure and unsecure file storage. In the Building and Zoning office suite, the county building inspectors and plan reviewers are provided with individual offices as before and work surfaces for laying out and reviewing drawing sets. A separate entrance with a resilient surface provides the means for building inspectors to return to the office from jobsites with less than clean boots. For use by personnel of all departments there are two conference rooms, a copy room, and a breakroom. New public restrooms were located in the same general location as the previous non-code compliant restrooms to minimize the extent of under-slab plumbing work. As a unifying element throughout the project, the millwork, e.g. of the teller stations in the Treasurer’s office, the service counters in the Commissioner of Revenue and Building and Zoning, and walls in the main hallway, consisted of stained ash veneer panels and black trim.
Once vacated by all departments, work began in 414 N. Main with limited demolition of interior partitions. The existing main corridor remained but was dressed in stained ash veneer panels. A door was added in the corridor, providing additional security for the county offices during after-hours when the Board of Supervisors’ Chamber may be in use. New public restrooms were located in the same location as the previous non-code compliant restrooms for the same reason as above. New office suites were laid out and constructed for the two off-site departments – Registrar and Finance as well as for the County Administrator and county IT.
Renovation of the interior of the Board of Supervisors Chamber involved improvements to appearance, acoustics, and AV/IT systems. The overall appearance of the chamber was makeshift and timeworn, far from inspiring a sense of civic pride. All four walls were tall, white CMU. The original two-tiered dais consisted of dull, dark stained vertical planks with a worn light brown plastic laminate countertop. Fabric on the auditorium seating was worn and faded. Many acoustic ceiling tiles were stained and sagging.
The tall CMU walls of the chamber created harsh acoustics. NSA introduced fabric-covered acoustic panels to the side and back walls to absorb sound and to reduce reverberation. The panels also softened the brutalist feel of the CMU.
The wall behind the dais received an arrangement of stained ash veneer panels same as the wood paneling elsewhere in the project. The original dais was removed and replaced with a new two-tiered dais of stained ash veneer paneling and containing an imbedded raceway for power, data and PA cabling.
AV/IT improvements included a microphone and speaker system for the supervisors on the dais and members of the public speaking from a wired lectern, wall-mounted monitors, power and data in the dais for the supervisors, ceiling-mounted projector and drop-down screen, broadcast camera, and AV rack.
And finally, the acoustic ceiling tiles were replaced, and the auditorium seating reupholstered.
