This facility received the Law Enforcement Facilities I Gold Award in the 2024 Officer Station Design Awards.
Official Project Name: Lenexa Justice Center
Project City/State: Lenexa, KS
Date Completed: August 26, 2024
Chief/Director: Police Chief Dawn Layman
Project Area (sq. ft.): 118,500
Total Cost: $61,000,000
Cost Per Square Foot: $515
Architect/Firm Name: FINKLE + WILLIAMS Architecture, Roth Sheppard Architects and TCA Architecture
City/State: Lenexa, KS
Phone: (913) 498-1550
Website: finklewilliams.com
Design Team: FINKLE + WILLIAMS Architecture (Architect), Roth Sheppard Architects (Associate Architect), TCA Architecture (Associate Architect), Henderson Engineers (MEP Engineer), BSE Structural Engineers (Structural Engineer), Renaissance Infrastructure Consulting (Civil Engineer), Hoerr Schaudt (Landscape Architect), Avant Acoustics (AV and Acoustical Engineer), JE Dunn Construction (Construction Manager)
Project Description
The new Lenexa Justice Center is uniquely Lenexa, reflecting both the community values as well as the progressive mindset of the Lenexa Police Department and Municipal Courts. The facility embraces the notion of community engagement by balancing the roles of both courts and law enforcement within the justice process.
Driven by a list of guiding principles, the unique nature of the site and topography presented both challenges and opportunities for the project. The public entry plaza is located on the upper platform of the site and orients toward a major intersection, celebrating the public connection. The secured entry plaza is located on the lower level and includes a ceremonial sequence that includes a two-story architectural element, honoring the significant role the staff plays in public safety when they come to work each day.
The building program is organized around the major public and secured functions with a literal and metaphorical ‘bridge’ linking the two zones. The bridge experience is highlighted architecturally with an elevated clerestory, flooding the interior space with daylight to help reinforce the importance of the connection.
The duty bag corridor, roll call and vertical circulation converge at the lower level ‘Hub’, which is a two-story, light-filled volume that serves as a node for everyone to come together to share a meal or conversation, in a warm, innovative, living room environment.
The building exterior is composed of simple, modern forms, clad in timeless materials familiar to the area. Transparency is achieved through clear glass, balanced with warm and durable native limestone. Key building functions (Community Room, Municipal Courtroom, ‘Bridge’ and ‘Hub’) are expressed with transparent vertical projections that serve as glowing beacons into the community at nightfall, further reinforcing the strong bond between the people living and serving within the city of Lenexa.