Trendspotting – Inmates Soaring Above
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At 2,000 feet and 115 floors, the proposed Fordham Spire, near Navy Pier, would be the tallest building in the United States.
Why do you we have this fascination with the height of our buildings? Especially now in the post Sept.11 era? In 1967, as an awestruck graduate student arriving in London for the first time from South Carolina (where our tallest building was 20 stories and is only 25 today), I remember my disappointment that there were no highrises. After Frank Roberts (The Durrant Group) and I had spent two years in pubs monitoring high building policy for the Greater London Council, my initial disappointment was buried beneath Georgian terraces.
Yet, the idea of standing on your 110th floor balcony in downtown Chicago and waving to your sister in Syracuse has some fascination, if not status. Maybe that’s it: status. Even though the revised, redesigned rendition of the Freedom Tower for Lower Manhattan is less exciting in the current iteration than Daniel Libeskind’s original lace-work sculpture, the final tower will send a pretty clear message that the American spirit is not easily diminished in depth, nor height. In other words, we invented it and will build it wherever and as often as we please.
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| In California, Sacramento County’s jail rises 16 stories, which ties it with the jail in Tarrant County, Texas. |
Inspired by all the news of high-rise buildings and the haziness that comes from the summer heat, I started wondering where is the tallest correctional facility in America (or the world). Since the United States is basically the only country that tends to join courthouses and jails at the urban hip, then hands-down the USA wins the international award. That only left the Bureau of Prisons, 50 states, plus territories, and 3,141 counties to consider.
Prisons
Prisons operate differently from jails. Most states cling as low to terra firma as possible but in 1972, the North Carolina Department of Corrections pioneered the nation’s first high-rise prison at 16 stories above grade. Several officials from the department acknowledge that while the DOC likes prototype prisons, the idea of repeating Morganton never comes up in polite conversation. By the way, Morgantown is today the Western Youth Institution and holds 821 sentenced young offenders aged 13-22. So, apparently, North Carolina gets the trophy in the state prison category.
Jails
Locating tall jails was relatively easy, since large cities tend to have large jails. Name the top 25 most populated cities and in all likelihood, the tallest jail is among them. Then there is the issue of what is a floor. Unlike the NCDOC prison, which is essentially a double-loaded, single level corridor with cells either side, most jails designed since the 1970s are based upon a floor-mezzanine combination for inmate housing. In my criteria, the combination of a floor and mezzanine was defined as two floors. A number of contenders emerged, and if studied seriously, probably provide a clue as to how the maximum number of floors should be established.
During the ’80s and ’90s, the number of new county detention centers grew like pistachios in Fresno, and a surprising number were multi-level facilities. Co-location of courts and jails in the county seat has been a long-standing paradigm in America, resulting in the need for vertical jails as land availability and cost dictated many solutions. Literally dozens of 10-15 floor jails have been constructed from Portland to Pittsburgh; Milwaukee to Miami; Dallas to the District of Columbia; Atlanta to Austin; and many other locations.
Initially, the winner appeared to be a tie between Sacramento County, Calif. and Tarrant County, Texas, at 16 floors above grade. Both facilities have approximately a half million square feet and were designed for more than 1,000 inmates. Another consistent theme for these “skyscraper jails” was that Hellmuth, Obata, & Kassabaum was the associated architect on both, as well as the majority of high-rise jails constructed in America in the last two decades.
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| San Diego’s Central Jail exceeds 20 stories but, alas, has to take second place in its category. |
However, the grand winner is the Allegheny County Correctional Center in Pittsburgh that tops out at 17 useable floors in one portion of the 900,000-square-foot complex. Designed by L. Robert Kimball and Associates, in association with Tasso Katselas Associates, the 2,400-bed mega-structure presents a strikingly handsome appearance along the Monongahela River in downtown Pittsburgh.
Federal Correctional Centers
In the 1970s the Bureau of Prisons initiated the concept of metropolitan correctional centers and did so based upon direct supervision housing units in high-rise structures. At approximately the same time, the Bureau opened new highrises in San Diego, Chicago, and New York City that were innovative in design and operations. Since these first projects, new BOP highrises have been opened in Los Angeles, San Juan, P.R., Philadelphia, Honolulu, Miami, Seattle, Brooklyn, and Houston.
Both the MCC San Diego and the MCC Chicago exceed 20 floors, with the Harry Weese-designed Chicago MCC beeing the world’s tallest correctional facility at 27 stories. Most would agree that the Chicago MCC is also one of the most elegant correctional facilities to grace a skyline.
So, the overall winner is Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, 27 stories high.
Something magical about Chicago inspires experimentation with high-rise structures. Architectural historians maintain that the highrise gained acceptance from the works of Sullivan, Wright, van der Rohe, and others during their Chicago years. Frank Lloyd Wright first proposed his “mile-high” building for Chicago, so no one should be surprised that the Fordham Spire is to be located in the midst of other existing and imagined giants.
Lessons Learned
Other than fodder for lulls at a late summer garden party conversation, is there anything about this little exercise in trivia that is useful? From discussions with architects, owners, and operators, several themes were consistent:
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| At 17 stories, Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Correctional Center is the tallest county jail in the United States. |
High-rise jails will continue to be in vogue as long as officers of the court and county sheriff’s continue to believe that instantaneous access to inmates is the top criterion in choosing a jail site.
Regardless of the number of elevators, the perception is that the internal transportation of inmates or baloney sandwiches takes longer and is less efficient in vertical jails.
Even with less roof to construct and leaks to plug, high-rise jails cost more to construct and maintain than their low-profile cousins.
Escape attempts are less successful if the first step to illegal freedom is a 50-foot vertical drop.
Whether a hospital, college dorm, condo or jail, an architect’s web site is enhanced when a habitable obelisk is included.
Lessons are plentiful from the more than 100 facility directors who ride an elevator to work each day. Regardless of any perceived threat, America will remain fascinated by and committed to the high-rise structure as a statement of status and the efficient use of real estate. Count on more lofty quarters for inmates.
(A special note of thanks to Mary Galey, the Bureau of Prisons, and Mike Frawley, HOK Architects, for observations, insights and photographs.)
Stephen A. Carter, AICP, is principal of Carter Goble Lee LLC in Columbia, S.C.