Located in Leesburg, Virginia, the new 3-story Loudoun County Courthouse structure houses four new courtrooms with a structural configuration that allows cubicle space at the first floor to be reconfigured into four additional courtrooms if needed for expansion. The remainder of the program consists of judges’ offices, conference rooms, office space, secure waiting lobbies, libraries, file storage, and prisoner holding. The new facility is connected to the existing courthouse by an underground tunnel cast under one of the oldest streets in Leesburg, dating back to the 1700’s.
The structural framing system consists of composite steel deck with concrete topping spanning between composite steel beams and girders, supported by steel columns. The columns are supported by micropiles and pile caps. Due to the potential for sinkholes under the building, the lowest level slab is structured to span between pile caps and additional individual micropiles at the midspan of longer slab spans. The lateral load resisting system for the building is a combination of concentrically braced frames and steel moment frames.