Courthouse Square demo wrapping up
Site cleared for Washington\'s public safety building
Courthouse Square is now in the history books.
The bulk of the demolition of Washington County’s former government office building is mostly done, with the rest of the work scheduled to continue through the end of June to get the site prepared for a new public safety complex.
“To see my old office going down, it was bittersweet,” Washington County Commission Chairman Nick Sherman said Monday of watching the building be razed. “I’m excited for the next chapter of Washington County.”
The demolition of the Courthouse Square tower and garage began March 2, but immediately hit a snag the second day when an excavator plunged into a basement level and toppled over. No one was injured in the mishap, but it delayed progress on razing the building as cranes had to lift the damaged excavator from the rubble and engineers inspected the area before determining it was safe to resume work in early April.
But even with that setback, the crews from Detroit-based Adamo Demolition have made quick progress, munching away at the seven-story steel and concrete structure and parking garage with specialized equipment, reducing it to rubble in a matter of weeks. Sherman said the county’s contract with Adamo ensures the site must be cleared and “pad ready” by June 30, and he said the demolition appears to be on schedule to meet that deadline. West Beau Street in Washington will remain closed until demolition is complete.
“There were some growing pains – obviously an accident kicked things off – but June 30 was our deadline, so we’re on budget and still on time,” Sherman said.
Courthouse Square opened in 1979 and was used as the county government offices for more than four decades before the county commissioners purchased the neighboring Crossroads Center building on West Beau Street for $10 million in December 2020. While most of the county’s offices moved over to the Crossroads building shortly after, some row offices remained at Courthouse Square with the hopes it could be renovated and saved before the decision was made in early 2024 to abandon and demolish the structure to make way for a public safety building.
“(Courthouse Square) was plagued with issues over the years,” Sherman said. “We’re excited about a better and more technologically advanced building that will save the taxpayers money.”
The commissioners unanimously approved a $1.555 million bid from Adamo in March 2025 to bring down the Courthouse Square building and parking garage, while another $1.44 million contract was approved last August to perform wall-shoring work ahead of the demolition.
AE Works of Sewickley, which is the architect designing the public safety building, was scheduled to deliver to the county the final plans of its construction drawings by the end of the day Monday. With those now in the county’s possession, the purchasing department will review the documents and create a “request for proposal” on the new building.
“We’ve been working on it, so it is just about ready,” county Administrator Daryl Price said. “Just a few tweaks.”
Sherman said the request for proposal will be publicly advertised twice, with the hopes that the commissioners can approve the final bids by their mid-July voting meeting. It’s not known when construction will begin or how much the new building will cost, although the commissioners approved a $12.5 million bond in November 2024 to partially fund the project.
The three-story public safety center will be located by the Washington County Courthouse and house the 911 dispatch center, sheriff’s office, booking center and have other various office space for county government, along with some areas for civic institutions to gather for meetings.