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Blue Earth County is a rapidly growing southern Minnesota community with Mankato as the County seat. Klein McCarthy Architects was hired by the County as
the Justice Designer to work with a local firm, Paulsen Architects, assisting in the planning, design and construction administration for the project. The County's goal was to create a
new centralized Government Justice Facility that would accommodate their space needs for all justice services - jail, law enforcement, courts, county attorney and
probation - with the ability to expand and change as needed in the future. Klein McCarthy Architects' design helped to improve operational and functional efficiencies and
provided increased safety to the public and staff.
The exterior of the building and landscape features creates a welcoming site that helps define the quality of Blue Earth County. The planning utilized zones of separate
circulation for the public, staff and inmates.
The County approached this project with the goal of achieving energy efficiency and sustainable design. As a result the Blue Earth County Justice Center is the first jail
in Minnesota to receive a US Green Building Council LEED Certification. Geothermal heating, natural lighting, energy-efficient
systems, the use of local materials, and recycling waste were a few contributing factors towards this achievement.
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