With security and sustainability becoming critical factors in nonresidential construction, design sometimes takes a back seat on projects.
Case in point: New York City's second Public Safety Answering Center, known as PSAC II, which opened last June in the Bronx. The 450,000-sf facility, sitting on 8.75 acres along the Hutchinson River and Pelham Parkways, supplements PSAC I, located at the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn. The newer facility is set up to handle more than 11 million emergency 911 calls annually to the city’s police and fire departments.
As tall as a 24-story building, the cube-like PSAC II is a fortress protected by 15-inch-thick concrete walls, with a relatively limited number of windows for an edifice this size: 77 4x10-foot openings and 54 4x20-foot openings. There’s only one window on the west side of the facility, facing a train station. The main building’s overall window-to-wall ratio is 4%.
The windows and doors are blast- and tamper-proof. Computers, machinery, and mechanicals (often duplicated for security purposes) take up half the building’s floor space. Its 230 or so operators and dispatchers aren’t allowed to leave the building at any time during their work shifts, which sometimes last up to 14 hours.
“It was a challenge to take a vertical bunker and make it architecturally interesting, and a place where people working in a high-intensity environment could tolerate being inside of it,” recalls Gary Haney, FAIA, RIBA, Design Partner with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. SOM, which also designed PSAC I, provided architectural services on the $800 million PSAC II. Jaros Baum & Bolles was the MEP Engineer, and Vidaris the sustainability consultant.
To make PSAC II something more than just a secure concrete box, SOM created what Haney describes as a “kind of camouflage” on the exterior with a sawtooth, two-color aluminum façade that has a “picket fence quality” and reflects sunlight.
The plant wall is by CASE and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Courtesy SOM/©Albert Vecerka|Esto.
Working with landscape architect Thomas Balsley, FASLA, SOM further softened the building’s monolithic exterior by installing a wrap-around sculptural berm of wild grasses. Haney has described the berm as making the building appear to float. The berm also serves as security cover to help hide the facility, which has two floors underground and an attached entry pavilion. “When you view the berm from the inside, it creates an infinite landscape,” says Haney.
SOM laid out the building’s windows in an irregular pattern to give it design character. The firm paid particular attention to bringing natural light into the 50,000-sf, L-shaped call center, which has 30-foot-tall ceilings.
“We’ve gone back to the building almost every week since it opened, and what I’m most happy about is the amount of light that comes into the call center,” says Haney. “It’s a pleasant surprise.”
The same is true on the third floor, which is mostly office space. “From the inside, you hardly notice there aren’t a lot of windows,” he adds.
In order to fine-tune the mechanical systems, the project team took almost a year to commission the building. “That made a huge difference in controlling energy consumption,” says Haney. The effort helped PSAC II achieve LEED Gold certification.
The building earned LEED points for its use of a living wall in its lobby and cafeteria areas. The plant wall—developed by CASE, SOM’s design research laboratory, in partnership with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute—acts as a natural air filter and a center of engagement for the building’s occupants.
“It became part of the idea of making the indoors more livable,” says Haney, who adds that the city was very receptive to including this design feature.
Landscape architect Thomas Balsley Associates created the grass berm. Courtesy SOM/©Albert Vecerka|Esto.
Related Stories
Adaptive Reuse | Jul 6, 2023
The responsibility of adapting historic university buildings
Shepley Bulfinch's David Whitehill, AIA, believes the adaptive reuse of historic university buildings is not a matter of sentimentality but of practicality, progress, and preservation.
Contractors | Jun 30, 2023
Construction industry task force aims for standardized carbon reporting
A newly formed Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) task force on decarbonization and carbon reporting will address the challenges around reporting and reducing carbon emissions in the construction industry.
Apartments | Jun 27, 2023
Dallas high-rise multifamily tower is first in state to receive WELL Gold certification
HALL Arts Residences, 28-story luxury residential high-rise in the Dallas Arts District, recently became the first high-rise multifamily tower in Texas to receive WELL Gold Certification, a designation issued by the International WELL Building Institute. The HKS-designed condominium tower was designed with numerous wellness details.
Green | Jun 26, 2023
Federal government will spend $30 million on novel green building technologies
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will invest $30 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to increase the sustainability of federal buildings by testing novel technologies. The vehicle for that effort, the Green Proving Ground (GPG) program, will invest in American-made technologies to help increase federal electric vehicle supply equipment, protect air quality, reduce climate pollution, and enhance building performance.
Industrial Facilities | Jun 20, 2023
A new study presses for measuring embodied carbon in industrial buildings
The embodied carbon (EC) intensity in core and shell industrial buildings in the U.S. averages 23.0 kilograms per sf, according to a recent analysis of 26 whole building life-cycle assessments. That means a 300,000-sf warehouse would emit 6,890 megatons of carbon over its lifespan, or the equivalent of the carbon emitted by 1,530 gas-powered cars driven for one year. Those sobering estimates come from a new benchmark study, “Embodied Carbon U.S. Industrial Real Estate.”
Mechanical Systems | Jun 16, 2023
Cogeneration: An efficient, reliable, sustainable alternative to traditional power generation
Cogeneration is more efficient than traditional power generation, reduces carbon emissions, has high returns on the initial investment, improves reliability, and offers a platform for additional renewable resources and energy storage for a facility. But what is cogeneration? And is it suitable for all facilities?
Resiliency | Jun 14, 2023
HUD offers $4.8 billion in funding for green and resilient building retrofit projects
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently released guidelines for its Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) that has $4.8 billion for funding green projects.
Mass Timber | Jun 13, 2023
Mass timber construction featured in two-story mixed-use art gallery and wine bar in Silicon Valley
The Edes Building, a two-story art gallery and wine bar in the Silicon Valley community of Morgan Hill, will prominently feature mass timber. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glulam posts and beams were specified for aesthetics, biophilic properties, and a reduced carbon footprint compared to concrete and steel alternatives.
K-12 Schools | May 25, 2023
From net zero to net positive in K-12 schools
Perkins Eastman’s pursuit of healthy, net positive schools goes beyond environmental health; it targets all who work, teach, and learn inside them.
Mass Timber | May 23, 2023
Luxury farm resort uses CLT framing and geothermal system to boost sustainability
Construction was recently completed on a 325-acre luxury farm resort in Franklin, Tenn., that is dedicated to agricultural innovation and sustainable, productive land use. With sustainability a key goal, The Inn and Spa at Southall was built with cross-laminated and heavy timber, and a geothermal variant refrigerant flow (VRF) heating and cooling system.