Location
Georgetown, Texas
Size
70,000 square feet
Status
Completed 2014
KAH Architecture teamed with Architects Design Group (ADG), award-winning, nationally recognized public safety architects headquartered in Winter Park, Florida, to design the new 70,000 sf Public Safety Operations and Training Facility for Georgetown, TX.
Located in an 11,300 square foot building at 809 Martin Luther King, Jr. Street, the original Police Department was built in 1911 as the Georgetown Light and Water Works facility. Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was renovated to become the police station in 1986.
Fire Department Administration offices are currently in an 8,200 square foot facility built in 1892. This Texas Historic Landmark Building has served as the City’s Water Department, jail, City Hall, and original fire station.
The new Public Safety Operations and Training Facility is located on approximately 15 acres adjacent to Fire Station No. 5. The gently sloping site further provided opportunity for the team to design a multi-level building engaged with the landscape to create grade level entry areas on two levels. Exterior courtyards for both staff and public use adorn the facility.
Indoor spaces consist of police administration and support programs, fire administration, emergency operations, communications center, training and other support programs needed for the distinctive personnel. In addition, the facility holds site training programs such as a slow speed vehicle course, a physical training course, a firing range, and an ancillary training and storage building.
The exterior envelope of the building is designed to meet an F3 tornado per the client’s request to enhance the facility’s survivability beyond the code required 90 mph wind speed with a 1.15 importance factor. This is assumed to be 136mph – 168mph of which the design team used 168mph as the basis for the design. Impact protection sits at a minimum Level D large missile impact that equated to a 9# 2×4 at 34mph. Aesthetically, the envelope blends with the existing Fire Station #5 and burn tower currently on the site to create a complete campus feel.
This purposefully designed facility will meet growth needs as determined by the 2007 needs assessment – updated in 2010 – and will allow the function of the two departments to remain consistent with its operational design while adjusting for future growth.
