Tag Archives: Survivable Facilities

New Facilities Planning Seminar Scheduled for March 7-8, 2013 in Orlando, Florida

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New Facilities Planning Seminar Scheduled for March 2013 in Orlando, Florida

For more than a decade The Center for Public Safety, Inc. in association with Architects Design Group has been hosting a bi-annual seminar titled; “Planning, Funding and Obtaining New Public Safety Facilities”.

This seminar is designed to help a governmental entity planning a new or renovated facility within the next few years to become more educated about the steps of the process from the identification of the need until the ribbon cutting to open the new facility.

Topics include involving staff, the RFP/RFQ process, selecting the design team, the stages of the project, project funding options, grants, construction delivery methods, emerging trends and security concerns among others.

This seminar is unique in that it is only available to current public sector employees or elected officials. To date more than 400 cities, towns, parishes, counties and public entities have sent at least one person to participate in this seminar.

The next opportunity to attend is March 7th and 8th in Orlando, Florida. In addition to the day and a half seminar, participants will have an opportunity to take a facility tour of a police department, fire station or emergency operations center. Lunch is provided the first day and that evening participants and their spouses can attend a catered reception where they can meet and interact with their peers and the seminar presenters.

For more information on or about the seminar, please visit http://www.centerforpublicsafety.org/ or contact CPS Executive Director Stockton Reeves via email at stocktonr@centerforpublicsafety.org or at 407-756-1237.

SUNRISE PUBLIC SAFETY COMPLEX NEAR COMPLETION

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The 132,000 SF, five-story City of Sunrise Public Safety Complex is nearing completion. National police architects, Architects Design Group, and the design team, performed multiple punch walkthroughs to assist the Construction Manager to close out all remaining construction issue to the satisfaction of the City and the users. The project achieved substantial completion on February 14, 2011.

The facility includes a tactical 8-lane Firing Range; and the installation has been completed and the shooting range is open for training to the Police force. Also included in this state-of-the-art facility is the 911 Communications Center, which is currently being furnished with specialty work stations and equipment that will serve as the Joint-use Broward County/City of Sunrise 911 Public Safety Answering Point.

One of the most important components of the Public Safety Complex is the Central Energy Plant that provides 100% redundancy to all critical infrastructure components. The plant accommodates two emergency generators and a fuel tank with a minimum of 72-hour capacity at full load. The chiller plant, located within this hurricane protected structure, is fully operational and is currently providing air conditioning to the entire complex.

The two-story, 18,000 SF, Fire Station #72 is 90% completed. The major components and equipment in this building have been installed. The specialty millwork installation is on-going and finishes are almost completed.

The final completion of the complex is scheduled for the end of March 2011 and Stiles Construction, the Construction Manager, is diligently working to achieve the deadline with the best quality of work and materials selected for the project.

Architects Design Group would like to thank the City of Sunrise for having afforded us with their trust to design and oversee the construction of this $32.5 million dollar state-of-the-art Public Safety complex.

We would also like to recognize the expertise of our design team:

  • TLC Engineering for Architecture (MEP, Security and Technology)
  • TRC Worldwide Engineering (Structural)
  • Architecture Dynamics (Associate Architects for Fire Station #72)
  • Urban Resource Group, a division of Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. (Landscape Architects)
  • Sun-Tech Engineering (Civil)

Critical Government Facilities for the 21st Century

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In today’s world we deal with issues never before anticipated…acts of global terrorism, a sensitivity to energy consumption, an international economy in disarray, disruption of technology (the internet) by disgruntle groups and individuals, etc., etc. Many of these we can address, given sufficient time and the commitment of appropriate resources. One area of specific concern is how counties and cities develop facilities to accommodate critical infrastructure. In many instances the “issues” noted above have a direct impact upon these facilities, primarily associated with survivability, hardening, security and similarly related elements. All of these have a direct impact upon facility cost and must now become a point of early discussion when developing project programs and budgets. A Communications Center, as an example, significantly increases in cost, when factoring in the additional expenses of a building that must be designed to resist the dynamitic forces of a Category 5 storm event….or a series of surge waves from an adjacent body of water.

What we have found and what we clearly recommend is that governmental entities should carefully consider the premise of co-siting critical infrastructure services; such as Communications, Information Technology, Records, Fire Administration, Financial Services, Law Enforcement and Emergency Management. Those critical services, when appropriately accommodated in a “survivable” structure, will be there and able to function, before, during and after a catastrophic event. The ability to continue to provide critical services is, and will be, the responsibility that we must endeavor to accomplish.

I.S.K. Reeves V, FAIA
President

Public Safety Facilities – Designing Survivable Infrastructure to Ensure Critical Community Service

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Now, more than ever, cities, counties and states throughout the country are recognizing the need for secure, survivable, and technologically advanced law enforcement, emergency management, fire and emergency medical services facilities. Many of these public facilities were built more than 50 years ago and are inadequate to remain fully functional after a natural or man-made disaster, or support modern day practices such as safekeeping of public records, security and training.

Critical to the mission of city, county, state and federal government is the protection of its citizens and the ability to continue public services 24 hours a day in both typical times and times of emergency. In order to do that, these governmental bodies require facilities that have the ability to protect the people, records and equipment contained within the building site and structures. This level or protection requires secure site perimeters of varying security levels, from public interface areas to highly secure, access controlled areas for staff operations. Also required is what is known as a “survivable” building envelope, which is a building that can withstand both natural and man-made catastrophic events and includes redundant water, sanitary and power systems.

Architects Design Group (ADG) understands how to plan, design, and construct “survivable” public safety facilities. Over the past 39 years, ADG has provided architectural design and systems coordination for facilities of this type, including the Sunrise Public Safety Facility currently under construction and the Monroe County Emergency Operations Center which is designed to survive the 10,000 Year Storm.