County of Sonoma Hosts Groundbreaking of New Public Health Lab & Coroner’s Office
Photo courtesy of Sonoma Public Infrastructure
Construction officially broke ground on the new Sonoma County Public Health Lab & Coroner’s Office Project on Friday, November 8th.
To celebrate, the County hosted a groundbreaking ceremony that was led by Director of Sonoma County Public Infrastructure Johannes Hoevertsz. Sonoma County Supervisors David Rabbitt and James Gore, Sonoma County Sheriff Eddie Engram, Interim Director of Health Services Jennifer Solito, and several members of the Sonoma County Public Health Lab and the Coroner’s office echoed the feeling of excitement for this new facility.
“I always like these events because [they] celebrate all the work that takes place to get to this point,” said Supervisor David Rabbitt in his opening statement.
COAR Design Group and the County of Sonoma first kicked off the master planning phase in 2023. The team worked collaboratively through each design phase to reach a final design that met this facility’s highly specialized functions, from durable lab spaces to comfortable public areas. Special consideration also had to be taken for material finishes, access control, and detailing specific to these respective purposes.
Another unique element of the project was combining dual functions in one building. Previously housed in two separate facilities, the Coroner’s Office and Public Health lab functions will now be co-located in a 23,000 square foot facility.
The exterior of the facility was designed to blend into the surrounding Sonoma County neighborhoods, while still demonstrating its permanence as a civic structure.
The Public Health Lab & Coroner’s Office serve vital roles within the community, making the need for an updated facility all the greater. The Lab facilitates the interaction between the health care community and state and federal agencies for unusual and exotic diseases and provides training and reference testing to local clinical laboratories. The Lab plays a key role in public safety by providing infectious disease data for local health policy planning, and emergency testing support to first responders and Northern California clinical laboratories. The Coroner’s Office accommodates both the County forensic pathologist team as well as the County Sheriff officers assigned to this Division.
In addition to Sonoma County, the Lab and Coroner’s Office serve Lake, Mendocino, and Humboldt counties under County agreements with those jurisdictions.
The ceremonial ground breaking officially kicks off the construction phase, bringing this much-needed facility one step closer to completion for the Sonoma County Community and beyond. COAR Project Managers Erin Smith and Krt Maness were eager to jump in as the Director of Sonoma County Public Infrastructure Johannes Hoevertsz exclaimed, “Alright, let’s throw some dirt up in the air now!”
