The DeKalb County Government and the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office recently celebrated the $35 million expansion of the DeKalb County Jail in Sycamore, Illinois. Designed by Dewberry, the construction nearly doubled the facility’s square footage and bed capacity.
The addition is linked to the existing facility, which was constructed in 1980, by a second-story bridge for easy transfer of inmates and staff. The building includes a two-story shell space to allow for a future interior build-out that will increase capacity from 140 beds to 197 beds. All current amenities were designed with the expansion in mind and sized properly for the additional capacity.
The building is sited on the existing municipal campus, surrounded by the administration building, legislative center, and the city library and located across the street from the DeKalb County courthouse. The courthouse was expanded by Dewberry in 2014.
Dewberry provided architectural and interior design; mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering; structural engineering; and technology design services for the project, which was completed on schedule. Other design team members included Kimme & Associates, Inc., for jail planning; Baxter & Woodman Consulting Engineers for civil engineering; and Vorndran & Associates for food service consulting. Gilbane Building Company served as the construction manager. The project also required reconfiguring the site to accommodate the addition, including rerouting and reconfiguring streets, rerouting existing utilities, and increasing the parking capacity.
