County officials have named two Seattle architectural firms, Miller Hull Architects and DRL Architects, to plan the courthouse campus expansion in Port Orchard. They beat out 17 other firms, including local firms, in the bid process.

The two firms are expected to develop design proposals for the renovation of the existing courthouse and the construction of a new administration building by October. The county commissioners would then have to come up with a way to fund the expansion project.

The commissioners have authorized spending up to $500,000 for the work by the two firms for the study, cost estimates and geotechnical studies of the renovation and construction sites.

A Pierce County judge ruled in February the county can’t move any of its core executive offices from Port Orchard to the proposed governmental center in downtown Bremerton because it would mean moving the county seat. Since the ruling, the commissioners have been trying to figure out how to solve the problem of space constraints currently overburdening county staff.

Miller Hull will design a new administration building to be located on a parcel situated directly across Division Street from the existing courthouse that currently has a small building on it, but serves mainly as a parking lot for the public and employees.

DRL will handle the design of the renovation of the courthouse itself, as well as the Bullard Building which houses court clerks and the civil division of the prosecutor’s office. It is directly adjacent to the courthouse.

Both firms have done previous institutional work in Kitsap County. DRL has a satellite office on Bainbridge Island and six of its nine key people live in Kitsap. The firm has experience in governmental renovation, recently working with the City of Everett and King and Cowlitz counties on the design of large administrative offices, justice centers and jail expansions.

Miller Hull designed the Bainbridge Island City Hall, the Olympic College Poulsbo Campus and the Salmon Center in Belfair. The firm specializes in low-impact development, often works with “green” building materials that don’t degrade the environment and has reputation for sustainable design.

The goal is to renovate the existing courthouse structure to provide more space for the county’s law and justice system including the courts, the prosecutor’s office and the clerk’s office. Administrative offices such as the auditor, assessor and treasurer, as well as the commissioners, would move across the street into the new building.

The county is also considering moving some non-core functions to the governmental center in Bremerton, so the size of the administration building could change depending on which county offices can move.