After Wall Collapse, Bucks County To Assess For Repairs At Administration Building

Bucks County plans to hire a structural engineer to assess needed repairs and plan restoration work for its aging Administration Building.

The assessment will target several issues at the former courthouse complex, including brick restoration, facade masonry, and cracks in the rotunda.

County officials said they intend to phase the repairs based on funding availability, meaning no specific timeline or total cost estimate is currently available.

“We are going to phase these things in as we are able to weigh it against taxpayer ability to do it,” said Democratic Commissioner Chairperson Diane Ellis-Marseglia, who acknowledged the building’s condition and the need for repairs.

Constructed in 1960, the nearly 70-year-old building features a rotunda and a connected seven-story office tower. It houses roughly 640 county employees, several row offices, and other county offices, while also hosting public events and commissioners’ meetings.

The complex previously served as a shared courthouse and administrative offices. It moved exclusively into a county government administrative facility after a new $90 million Justice Center opened across the street in 2015.

An interior renovation of the building was completed in 2020.

Exterior maintenance has been neglected for decades in some instances, according to county spokesperson James O’Malley.

The building itself remains structurally sound and most maintenance is superficial, according to O’Malley.

A brick wall near the Court Street entrance recently collapsed due to weather, which has led officials to block off part of the area near the main entrance.

“Nature forced our hand with the collapsed wall near the Court Street entrance, and we would much prefer to inspect and shore up the other walls … before they reach the point of failure,” O’Malley said in a statement.

The building’s World War I memorial fountain has also been closed off due to needed repairs.

Among the items slated for replacement are the rotunda windows. The windows are original to the 1960 construction and have begun to crack and fail over the last decade, officials said.

Bucks County Chief Operating Officer Margaret McKevitt explained that the hired structural engineer will be responsible for evaluating the necessary repairs and developing formal blueprints for the restoration.

O’Malley said that a contract is anticipated to come before the commissioners for consideration at a public meeting later this month.

The county plans to apply for grants and utilize its own staff of skilled tradesmen for in-house labor whenever possible, O’Malley said.

The county is in the process of constructing a new Lower Bucks County Government Center in Bristol Township.

The county government and courthouse were originally located in Falls Township during the time of William Penn. The county seat moved next to Newtown Borough before establishing a home in Doylestown Borough in 1810.