Waukesha County Courthouse Renovation and Courts Tower, Waukesha, Wisconsin

Waukesha County’s courthouse rebuild has been in the works for the better part of a decade, and on Wednesday the county finally got to sign the last beam. On Oct. 21, Gilbane Building Co. crews lifted the final beam into place over the new main entrance of the Waukesha County Courthouse, a milestone in a two-phase program that the county’s public works director pegs at a little over $150 million.

The original courthouse went up in 1959, when the county had about 150,000 residents and three judges. It now serves more than 415,000 people. The building’s mechanical systems were failing, its security setup dated to post-9/11 retrofits, and visitors routinely got lost between the courthouse and the attached Administration Center.

Project Scope

Phase I was a new four-story secure courts tower on Moreland Boulevard, designed by Milwaukee-based Zimmerman Architectural Studios with Gilbane as general contractor. It replaced a 52,000-square-foot intake court building and unused jail space that were demolished in 2019, and it holds eight courtrooms.

Phase II is the harder job. Kueny Architects and Wold Architects and Engineers designed a 151,000-square-foot gut renovation of the 1959 structure, which included partial demolition of the north-south wing to make room for an addition with courtrooms built to National Center for State Courts standards. The county held a wall-breaking on Sept. 12, 2023. Gilbane is again the builder.

When it’s done the complex will have full three-way separation, meaning separate circulation for the public, for judges and staff, and for in-custody defendants. Plumbing, air handling and electrical systems are all being replaced. A single combined entrance will serve the courthouse and the Administration Center, and a new County Board room is part of the package. The juvenile courtroom is moving into the courthouse too. The county says the main entrance should open next summer, with the original east-west wing converted to offices for the district attorney, court staff and IT over the coming year and final completion at the end of 2027.

Why It Matters

Courthouse renovations are some of the most constrained jobs in public construction. The building has to keep holding hearings while crews tear out its guts, and Wold describes temporary systems and repeated department moves just to keep operations going through the work. Waukesha’s approach of splitting the program into a tower first and a renovation second gave the county somewhere to move courtrooms before the old building was opened up.

The financing is worth a look as well. The county paid roughly 20% down on its borrowing and plans to retire each bond in 10 years or less, with federal grant dollars and tax levy covering the rest. Plenty of counties with 1950s and 1960s courthouses are staring at the same failing systems, and that phased, pay-as-you-go model is one they’ll be studying.

Project Team & Details