Everything old is new again: Turning unused space into public safety facilities
A sixty-year-old school may seem an unlikely candidate for conversion into a police station, but for the community’s desire to save a building where many of its residents had attended elementary school.
Indeed, local governments often own (or acquire through redevelopment) real estate properties that can be successfully adapted into police facilities. The conversion of existing buildings into modern police facilities is a new development strategy that can put municipally-owned properties to a higher and better use.
Two northern California cities recently used this approach to their advantage.
West Sacramento converted a 22,000-square-foot, tilt-up concrete warehouse into a state-of-the-art police facility, and Auburn adapted a 1939 elementary school and its grounds into an 11,000-square-foot dispatch center and police facility.
Without question, the general obligation bond that financed construction of Auburn’s $1.73 million police facility owed its passage as much to the community’s desire for historic preservation as to the need for a modern police department.
At a cost of $157 per square foot, Auburn’s adaptive re-use project was comparable to what new construction would have cost. But the city preferred to save a treasured historic landmark while meeting the needs of its expanding police force.
“People were very satisfied that we kept the building, rather than knock it down to build a modern facility,” says Michael Morello, an Auburn police lieutenant who became chief of police during the construction. His advice to administrators contemplating construction of a renovated or new facility: “Definitely have a policeman or officer assigned to the building while it is being built, to assure functionality.”
Converting a warehouse In West Sacramento, the city’s police department had overflowed its ancient building and was spread out in a number of sites around town, but the city could not afford the estimated $135-to-$150-per-square-foot cost of a new facility.
When West Sacramento obtained a tilt-up warehouse as part of a larger redevelopment acquisition, the opportunity arose to adapt the building and consolidate the police department into a modern facility.
The $1.3 million project was completed on a fast track at $50-per-square-foot because of a schedule that identified and enforced critical decision-making points, ground was broken May 15, 1996, and the facility was occupied by the following October.
The tight budget and accelerated design and construction schedules left no time for hesitation in the decision-making process. To avoid delays, the city formed a task force made up of representatives from each affected department, to address design and construction issues as they arose.
“The task force was critical because it signed off on every component of the process,” says Police lieutenant Bruce Muramoto. “A tremendous amount of ownership and cooperation developed from that.”
Muramoto was a key player in the project, serving as the police department’s project manager and shepherding the project through the city’s approval process. “Everybody knew going in that we had a low budget, limited space and a defined footprint for the building,” he says.
Seeking expert advice Since adaptive re-use has the potential to cost more than new construction, a city or county should cautiously evaluate the physical condition of any buildings it considers for this strategy. If a police facility’s configuration is compromised to fit into an existing structure, the police functions may be compromised, too. No community can afford that.
Before the decision is made to re-use a building, consideration should be given to its spatial and structural flexibility, security potential, ability to meet current code requirements, site access and the materials from which it was made.
Because of the complexities of adaptive re-use and its potential long-term consequences, public officials should not hesitate to seek the help of a consultant who can aid in designing and planning, as well as advise on organizing city departments to manage the construction project efficiently. West Sacramento’s task force, for example, met weekly throughout the design and construction process to address potential problems early and prevent turf battles.
“It’s important to get the key decision-makers together, appoint one person on the police facility side as the final decision-maker and find one person on the design team side who can interact with the client,” Muramoto says.
For a program to be successful, he says a clear delineation of decision-making authority within the local government hierarchy is essential.
“The governing authority, the big boss, has to let everyone know that he or she supports the project, and has to give the project manager full authority to get things done,” Muramoto adds.
If the city or county is able to pre-qualify the general contractor, the project is more likely to be cost-effective than if the project is put out to low bid. By awarding a contract solely on the basis of low bid, the city or county risks getting a contractor that will try to augment the bid with costly change orders, a scenario that can spell disaster for any project.
Evaluation criteria Still, while many buildings offer an excellent opportunity for adaptive re-use, some are simply not suitable.
A free-standing former bank building, for example, is more likely to meet security requirements than a building within a shopping center. Certain guidelines can be used to evaluate a building’s potential.
One measure is the existing building’s floor-to-roof height. The greater the height, the more flexibility exists to insert drop ceilings and run mechanical and telecommunication systems between the ceiling and the roof. On the other hand, the lower the ceiling, the more it will cost to install telecommunications equipment.
Too, previous use influences a building’s flexibility. Obviously Auburn’s school, built for kids in grades K-6, had little in common with a modern police facility: toilets, drinking fountains and even room sizes were too small, and the hallways were too narrow for police officers in full gear. But a careful inventory of the building showed that its historic exterior could be preserved while the interior was modified.
The architect retained interior load-bearing walls and designed a new floorplan to fit into the existing window patterns, so the exterior could be left intact. The school’s wood frame construction simplified the insertion of structural members to strengthen the building for seismic safety.
Some of the school’s existing spaces matched proposed police uses. The gym, for example, was converted to serve as a training and exercise area for police officers and as a public meeting hall for the community, and the school playground was adapted into a secured parking area.
Most of the school’s interior, however, was gutted and replaced with administrative offices and other police facilities, including an evidence office and storage area, a records room, showers, lockers, a patrol room, interview rooms, line-up and monitoring rooms, a dispatch area and a detective work area.
A new sallyport and vehicle evidence storage area were added to the building, using design details and materials that echoed the original exterior. All functions were arranged around the dispatch center, the heart of the building.
By contrast, the warehouse building in West Sacramento was more conducive to structural adaptations. The warehouse had large clear spans and no interior load-bearing walls, both of which are advantageous in adaptive re-use. And, since it was a relatively new structure, the warehouse met seismic safety requirements with only minimal alterations.
Initially, the West Sacramento police department tried to force its program requirements into a design configuration that would use existing interior walls, but that approach proved to be inefficient. The warehouse had one length, but three different widths, making it difficult to locate some of the different police functions adjacent to one another as police officials had requested.
So rather than compromise efficiency by retaining existing walls, a new floorplan was designed to strengthen functional inter-departmental relationships, based on input from all personnel using the facility.
Ensuring security Security is generally a determining factor in whether an existing building is suitable for adaptive re-use.
The overall design and physical layout of any police station should contribute to the physical safety of those who work there, as well as the visiting public, suspects and crime victims. This requires a delicate balance in creating both a secure environment and a humane atmosphere. Making a defendable building that is not a fortress is an important planning principle.
Since both the Auburn and West Sacramento facilities are used for booking and temporary holding of suspects, security measures were not as stringent as they would be in long-term holding facilities. However, it is possible to insert a high-security jail into an existing building by applying a more rigorous set of design details, construction techniques, materials and hardware.
In West Sacramento, site location and building orientation were the main security constraints. Jefferson Boulevard, one of the city’s main streets, offered a clear line of sight – and of fire – into the executive offices and the secured parking area for police officers’ cars.
Railroad tracks running along another side of the building held a similar high-ground advantage. To mitigate these site disadvantages, a concrete masonry screen wall was built, blocking the line of sight from Jefferson Boulevard into the executive offices. A carport was built to shield police cars, and the secured parking area was located between the screen wall and the offices.
Traffic and accessibility Site access and on-site traffic patterns determine how police and others will get into and out of the building during emergency situations. Because patrol cars often must roll out at top speed to respond to an emergency call, it is not wise to adapt a building that exits onto a residential street, a street with a school yard or hospital or one with heavy commuter traffic.
Police facilities should have at least two entrances into the site, but careful planning can make other site options work. The West Sacramento facility had only one access point, and it was shared with an auto-body repair shop.
Because of the size of the drive aisles, it was impossible to erect a fence between the police facility and the body shop. Instead, functional areas that do not require high security, such as evidence storage, were located on the side of the building that faces the body shop. In addition to location and configuration, the materials that were used to construct an existing building can help determine the suitability of that structure for conversion. Obviously, a glass building affords very little security.
The West Sacramento structure had window-walls facing the street. To improve security, much of the glass was removed and replaced with solid walls or high windows. Since it is important to bring natural light into police facilities as a morale booster, glass was retained on the Jefferson Boulevard side of the building to illuminate the executive offices.
Hiring a designer Building a police facility requires special expertise – especially if a strategy of adaptive re-use is implemented. A city or county planning staff can do an initial evaluation to determine which buildings might be appropriate for adaptive re-use, but when it comes to making the final evaluation, a qualified consultant should hired.
Most police administrators know what they want in terms of security and function, but few have ever managed a construction contract. “We’re cops. Typically, we buy police cars, guns and bullets – not design services,” Muramoto says.
Value engineering was an intensive process in West Sacramento because of the extremely tight budget and fast-track schedule. Whenever possible, materials from the existing building – such as light fixtures, doors and hardware – were salvaged and re-used.
At each phase of the design process, the architect’s drawings were accompanied by a cost estimate. The city’s task force and the design team identified program items that could be eliminated and possibly added back if funds became available. As construction progressed, unneeded contingency funds were used to pay for alternative program items.
Neighborhood impact Redevelopment efforts can be stimulated by adapting an existing building for use as a police facility. The presence of law enforcement creates a more secure environment to attract business to the area and shows that the city or county is committed to revitalization.
Renovating an existing building in a depressed area also can support a law enforcement action plan, especially one that includes community-oriented policing. Redevelopment funds may even be available to help pay for the project.
But using a civic building to stimulate redevelopment can be a problem as well as a benefit, since a civic use reduces the tax increment that goes into the redevelopment fund. Care must be taken not to use all of the redevelopment area’s prime real estate for non-revenue-generating functions.
Turning real estate liabilities into law enforcement assets will not work in every instance. But with careful evaluation and competent consultants, cities and counties can take advantage of their hidden assets to build badly needed – and otherwise unaffordable – police facilities.
Lynn Pomeroy is a president at LPA/Sacramento, a Sacramento, Calif.-based architecture, planning, interior design and landscape architecture firm.
Disasters and major emergencies, by their very nature, often are not conducive to an orderly, methodical response. Frequently, phone lines are down (or overloaded), roads are impassable, and the first responders may be overwhelmed trying to render aid to victims.
Responders may be forced to improvise, setting up whatever kind of makeshift response center they can and making do with often-inadequate equipment and facilities.
Not so for the Salt Lake County (Utah) Fire Department, which plans to avoid that scenario with its new mobile command post, a vehicle that already has proven its worth during a major fire.
Outfitted by Skaggs Telecommunications Service, Murray, Utah, the 34-foot motorcoach offers the department a quiet place to control an incident and plan for long-term operations.
“Rather than huddle a group of people around a small vehicle, our command post gives us the chance to get out of the weather, organize communications and make assignments,” says Chief Don Berry. “Having a small conference room inside the vehicle makes it much easier than standing in the street trying to make decisions.”
The walls of the conference room are lined with white dry erase boards, allowing users to write response plans and other information directly onto them.
The fire department recently used the vehicle to respond to a three-alarm fire at a three-story apartment building. The camera atop the command post’s 25-foot pneumatic telescoping mast proved to be particularly helpful, as firefighters could watch the roof operations on monitors inside the vehicle instead of trying to see what was happening from the street.
In addition to the telescoping mast, the command post has three work stations with telephones and UHF, VHF, aviation and citizen’s band radio frequencies. “The radio equipment is particularly useful because it allows us to direct operations without disturbing our dispatch,” Berry says.
The vehicle can also be used to help with future training programs. The pan/tilt camera atop the mast records emergency response operations, which trainers and their students can later review and critique.
“The command post has become an integral part of our department and its operations,” Berry says. “We are able to operate more efficiently and effectively during major incidents.”
The department plans to upgrade the vehicle by installing a forward-looking infrared camera for nighttime viewing as well as a satellite telephone system.
The scenario is repeated daily at 911 dispatch centers nationwide: A frantic caller tries to explain the nature of a medical emergency to a dispatcher whose job it is to ask specific questions about the situation, get a name and address, then send out the appropriate help.
Often, precious seconds are lost when the dispatcher must calm down the caller and record all of the crucial information – address, age and sex of the patient, the patient’s medical history and other details. “One of the most difficult parts of our job is getting the appropriate information from callers,” says Craig Breneiser, director of communications for Berks County, Pa.
A solution is available, however, that can dramatically reduce the response time of paramedics, EMTs and other personnel. By storing medical and other background data about city residents in a computer, a 911 operator can avoid asking numerous questions when any of those residents call for help.
Anyone responding to an alarm would have the victim’s “profile” available with the stroke of a keyboard.
Berks County recently became the first region in the country to begin using 911Plus from LifeSafety Solutions, King of Prussia, Pa. The county’s emergency services command center, based in the county seat of Reading, serves 340,000 people living in 120,000 households in 76 municipalities.
Subscribers, who complete a questionnaire so their information can be entered into a secure database, pay $8 per month (added to their telephone bill) or $84 annually if they choose to pre-pay.
In the event of an emergency that precipitates a subscriber’s call to 911, the system instantaneously transmits the caller’s data from its database to the computer screen of the 911 dispatcher.
The dispatcher thus has immediate access to vital facts such as the household occupants’ ages, medical histories, pre-existing conditions and locations of children’s bedrooms.
Within minutes of a 911 call being placed, the service notifies a designated relative, caregiver or neighbor of the emergency.
The system was provided to Berks County free of charge, and under the contract terms, the company will rebate a portion of the revenues it receives based on the number of households that subscribe. A portion of revenues from the new service will be shared with the municipalities that use it.
In Manassas, Va., the police and fire departments have put the power of computer databases right at the fingertips of officers or firefighters out in the field, thereby giving them speedy access to a wealth of critical information. By using in-vehicle laptop computers, police and fire officials can get direct online access to state and local databases, the National Crime Information Center and the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System.
Vehicle descriptions, arrest records and information on gun registration, carrying a concealed weapon permits, stolen property and a suspect’s description all can be accessed in a few seconds. If a suspect has a common name that shows up more than once with similar descriptions, an officer can ask the person to voluntarily give fingerprints for comparison to computerized fingerprint records.
The system consists of several key components, including Premier MDT software, a customizable, wireless application from Software Corp. of America, Stamford, Conn., that provides for keyboard, mouse or touch screen control. Additionally, the Private Data-TAC wireless mobile data software network from Motorola’s Land Mobile Products Sector, Schaumburg, Ill., ensures direct and secure transmission of data to officers, without the intervention of a central dispatcher. The third element is a computer-aided dispatch system from HTE, Orlando, Fla., which performs critical functions for the Manassas regional dispatch center, including tracking locations of equipment and personnel and routing closest available units for response to calls.
The new equipment has improved efficiency and will result in long-term savings, says Lt. William Spencer of the Manassas Police Department. Under the old system, patrol officers had to wait for open air time and then radio the suspect’s license plate and driver’s license numbers to a dispatcher.
Waiting for a return call with information about outstanding warrants or a previous police record would often take several minutes, according to Spencer. On a busy Friday night, it might have taken 10 minutes to receive information back from the dispatcher.
Moreover, the officer or dispatcher could sometimes misunderstand each other’s spoken relay of letters and numbers. Officers sometimes had to wait their turn, since, when one officer was taking up air time with a call to the dispatch center, others were precluded from calling in.
The new system has reduced the department’s regular radio traffic by about 30 percent, enabling officers to get the data they need within about six or seven seconds. “We’ve managed to move the computer system to the end user,” Spencer says.
The Manassas police and fire departments use 72 laptop computers and have a software licensing agreement for up to 100. Spencer says the system improves dispatcher efficiency and reduces errors. No layoffs have resulted from the system’s implementation, but fewer dispatchers will need to be hired in the future.
Consolidations, mergers and strategic alliances among fire departments are becoming increasingly common because of the increased efficiency and effectiveness they often bring about.
Now, two retired fire chiefs, Jeffrey Johnson and Jack Snook, the latter CEO of West Linn, Ore.-based Emergency Services Consulting Group, have written a book exploring the trend.
“Cooperative Service – Making the Pieces Fit” is a culmination of the men’s 42 combined years of experience in the cooperative service arena.
The pair has conducted cooperative service workshops nationwide on behalf of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Their book provides an historical perspective on the cooperative service trend, analyzes the present-day situation and offers advice on how to determine whether a department is a good cooperative service candidate.
It also attempts to explain why cooperative service efforts fail and how chiefs can avoid the pitfalls that will confront them once they opt for a strategic alliance. The book includes templates of forms to use in the creation and administration of cooperative service agreements.
The book, which costs $49.50 plus $3.50 shipping and handling, is available from ESCG, 3565 Riverknoll Way, West Linn, OR 97068, (800) 757-3724; in Oregon (503) 655-7775.