The team developing Lancaster County’s new correctional facility has completed a draft schematic design, which is being presented to the county commissioners Tuesday morning.
Renderings, site plans, a set of slides and a draft executive summary are all included in the packet for the commissioners’ weekly work session, scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 13 at the County Government Center, 150 N. Queen St., Lancaster.
Schematic design translates the space needs established in the programming phase into a site plan and a basic building design. It serves as the basis for the next two phases: Design development and the production of construction documents, the detailed drawings and specifications that the contractors will use.
The design team is led by the company TranSystems, which is working with CGL, the county’s “owner’s representative,” and a committee of prison and county administrative staff. Their executive summary repeatedly emphasizes that the process is at an early stage and “many things are still very much subject to change.”
“Keep in mind that the county is not locked into anything until it receives bids and executes construction contracts,” it cautions.
For more information
Public discussions and reviews of the draft schematic design for the Lancaster County Correctional Facility are scheduled as follows:
- Lancaster County commissioners’ work session: 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13: Room 701, County Government Center.
- Prison Board: 9:15 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 15, Room 701, County Government Center.
- Public listening session: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21, Rooms 102-104, County Government Center.
- Board of commissioners’ approval: TBD
The project’s website is lccf-pa.com. Project documents are typically added to the site’s document center after they have been presented formally at a commissioners’ meeting or other public session.
The original conceptual design had called for 1,212 beds, resulting in a preliminary space estimate of 482,381 square feet. In February, however, the county commissioners signed off on a smaller initial build of around 1,000 beds, with room for expansion later on.
Accordingly, the draft schematic design has a total of 994 beds in 21 housing units. The core areas — laundry, food service and so on — are sized for that number of inmates, not 1,212. That slims down the total square footage by 10%, to 433,018 square feet. If and when an addition is needed, there is space on the building’s southern end, the report indicates.
It offers a preliminary cost estimate of $890 to $940 per square foot, which suggests the overall cost of the building as laid out in the schematics could be $385 million to $407 million. That said, the project is an early stage, with many decisions subject to review and revision, and the final cost could be much different, the executive summary says. It characterizes the estimate as an initial “snapshot in time.”
Layout and features
The site plans show a roughly rectangular building with its long axes oriented roughly north-south on its site, a former farm field next to the county Central Park in Lancaster Township. There is a ring road around it and parking on the north and west sides.
The facility will be fully ADA compliant, the description says. It highlights a range of features, including recreation areas for each housing unit; space for programs and counseling; a medical center; and staff training and fitness areas.
The report touts the building’s “non-institutional aesthetic” and says its low profile and the abundant greenery around it will keep it from obtruding on its surroundings. Lighting will be oriented downward and shielded to minimize light pollution.
A white roof, skylights, high-efficiency systems and a “thermally efficient building envelope” will all promote low energy use and sustainability, the plan says. During design development, the team will study whether to incorporate other sustainability options, such as a green roof or geothermal technology, it says.
What’s next
Following Tuesday’s debut, the design team will present the schematic design to the Prison Board and at a public listening session.
The commissioners are tentatively expected to approve the design, either in its current form or with amendments, by the end of the month. They could take longer, if they choose: They have said repeatedly their goal is to get the project right, not to hit a particular deadline no matter what.
Once the schematic design is approved, design development can begin. That will take about three months, followed by six months to produce construction documents and three to four months to solicit construction bids and award contracts, the executive summary says — while noting that the timeline, like the budget, is an estimate and subject to change.
If the next two design phases go smoothly, the bid process should begin next July , which in turn would allow construction to begin in earnest toward the end of 2025.
Construction is expected to take about two years, wrapping up toward the end of 2027 with full occupancy of the correctional facility “a few months afterwards,” the report says.
