Public Safety + Civic
Making room for efficiency
Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office
We worked with Maricopa County to renovate two floors of the County Medical Examiner’s Office to accommodate more office and storage space. The result of this medical examiner's office renovation was a more efficient use of space and added amenities to attract and retain staff.
From empty space to office space
In 2019, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office began using an external commercial laboratory to process toxicology samples. This change left the facility with an excess of lab space that was previously devoted to toxicology. An increase in staff also left a shortage of office and storage space. As a result of these changes, the previous facility was inefficient and no longer met the needs of the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office.
To address the need for more office and storage space, our design reconfigured the unneeded lab space into offices, storage, and amenity space to meet the current and future needs of the office. To accommodate future growth, the design included renovating an additional 13,000sf from adjacent office spaces.
A medical examiner's office renovation that supports future growth
The facility was in use 24 hours a day, seven days a week during construction. To minimize disruption to the Medical Examiner’s important work, construction was phased, carefully factoring in the maintenance of the required chain-of-custody, security, and certification protocols needed to carry out the work uninterrupted.
The new design allows for a more efficient use of space, better departmental adjacencies, and additional temperature-controlled storage. To support staff wellness, larger breakrooms and wellness rooms were designed, as well as private phone rooms.
With the reconfigured and modernized space, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office has a flexible, future-ready space.
Client
Maricopa County
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Size
25,001-50,000 sf
Disciplines
Beyond the Building
- Extreme Makeover
- Renovation
- Rightsizing
- Wellness
