Emergency office’s new perspective
The New York City Office of Emergency Management has new headquarters in Brooklyn to replace its former offices in the World Trade Center that were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001. Designed by locally based Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, the agency’s 100-person emergency operations center, general office space, and a press and conference center are located in a former Red Cross building that was gutted and renovated. The facility is clad in limestone, zinc and glass, and includes a watch command with several workstations, a citywide warning desk, full audio and video recording capabilities, a 15-foot video wall, and the latest IT systems. It will be the first city government agency headquarters in New York to receive a silver LEED rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.