DATE: Thursday, November 13, 1997           TAG: 9711130502

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   58 lines

NEW COURTHOUSE SPURS MEMORIES OF FIRST CASE HEARD BY JUDGE AS GROUND IS BROKEN, WORKERS SAY THEY'RE EAGER TO MOVE INTO THE ROOMIER PLACE.

William H. Hodges, a senior judge in the Court of Appeals of Virginia, can remember the day he first tried the first case in the Chesapeake Circuit Court building in Great Bridge.

``I remember coming on the premises around here when the poor house sat where the library is now,'' Hodges said. ``This was all marshland. . . . The new courthouse was supposed to last 50 to 75 years.''

About 30 years later, the city's Circuit and General District Court buildings have become victims of the city's spectacular growth. Wednesday afternoon, Hodges helped break ground on a $25.8 million courthouse adjacent to the present court buildings.

The four-story structure will contain offices and courtrooms. The staff of the commonwealth's attorney, which has been separated into two buildings and a trailer, will be consolidated in the new building.

``We need more office space,'' said Commonwealth's Attorney Larry D. Willis. ``Right now, we have authorization to hire two new attorneys, but there's not room for them.''

Lillie M. Hart, clerk of Circuit Court, has spent 30 years working in the court administration office, often cramming three workers into offices designed for one and stacking file cabinets on top of one another.

Joining about 50 city dignitaries at the ground-breaking Wednesday, Hart said, ``All I can say is it can't be here soon enough!''

The new facility will be built at the intersection of Albemarle and Holt drives, across the street from the new city jail. About two dozen towering oaks and pines, as well as a small parking lot, will be cleared to make room for the building. The old courthouses will be demolished.

The TAF Group of Virginia Beach, in association with Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum of Washington, D.C., designed the 172,000-square-foot judicial facility, and W.M Jordan Co. of Newport News will build it.

It will not be as tall as the six-story City Hall, but it will be constructed of similar white pre-cast concrete panels and blue reflective glass windows.

Escalators in the four-story atrium will carry patrons to the upper levels, giving visitors a greater sense of orientation around the building.

``People can get disoriented easily in courthouses,'' said city construction manager Dave E. Jacques. ``From the foyer, it should be clear where they have to go.''

The first two floors of the building will house four General District courtrooms, the clerk of General District Court and the commonwealth's attorney. The third and fourth floors will contain five Circuit Court courtrooms, a jury assembly room and the clerk of Circuit Court.

Shell space for six future courtrooms will be distributed throughout the building. There will be holding cells for prisoners between the courtrooms. ``In a courthouse, there is a need for three separate pathways: one for the public, one for the detainees and one for the judiciary,'' Jacques said. ``This building will keep them apart.''

An underground tunnel from the city jail to the new courthouse, burrowing under Albemarle Drive, will allow prisoners to be transported directly from one facility to the other.

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