Architects Design Group, national public safety architects headquartered in Winter Park, Florida recently attended the ribbon cutting for the $15.8 million, 76,000 square foot City of Sanford Public Safety Complex located in Sanford, Florida. The Public Safety Complex is located southwest of Sanford’s Historic Downtown near the Historic Goldsboro Community.

The Public Safety Complex, which joins Sanford’s Police and Fire Departments into a two-story state-of-the-art building, celebrated its grand opening last November in the new exterior Civic Plaza, situated at the prominent corner of the site. The plaza plays an important aspect of the project’s relationship to the surrounding historic neighborhood and provided the perfect setting for building’s dedication. Attendees included elected officials, the city’s Police and Fire chiefs and staff, ADG and design consultants, and the construction management team of Wharton Smith as well as many local residents.

ADG designed both departments as separate facilities that share a two story Atrium, which includes vertical circulation, lobby/reception, a Historic Apparatus Display, and Community Meeting Room that opens onto the Civic Plaza. The fully functioning Police Department will include all the necessary elements required for law enforcement; vehicle evidence processing, emergency services unit vehicle storage, evidence storage, records storage, interview rooms, and a drive through sally port, while the two-story Fire Department is comprised of a five-bay apparatus bay, crew quarters, and a training tower on the first floor and fire administration and emergency operations center on the second floor.

All critical functions of both the Police and Fire Department are contained within the exterior concrete tilt panel walls and hurricane impact glazing, which are designed to withstand 150 mph hurricane force winds. The Public Safety Facility is also designed with 100% backup to all mechanical and electrical systems to provide uninterrupted use of the facility during a catastrophic event.