Embodying openness and transparency, the new Alabaster Police Department reflects an outward commitment to service, engagement, and communication with the community. The challenge was to create a facility that embraces the dichotomy between a welcome and inviting public presence with the necessity for highly secure and restricted private functions.

The project is located along a busy traffic corridor and creates a front door to the City’s municipal district. It is sited in a park like setting with a fountain as a grand civic gesture, with welcoming public access separated from secure police functions, parking, and sallyport to ensure safety.

The challenge for the exterior was to use materials present in nearby municipal buildings yet achieve a forward-looking civic presence through a stately and slightly monumental use of planar stone and rhythmic precast concrete elements. These components are balanced with abundant glazing and a grand front porch as public entry to promote openness. In contrast, the sallyport located in the secure parking area is clad in an economical metal siding to reflect the utility within.

The interior experience is organized around natural light with circulation pushed to the exterior in narrow yet lofty spaces that flood with natural light, using a balance of modern aesthetics with a durable economy of materials. Operational efficiency has been streamlined through adjacencies and key spaces are layered with interior glazing to allow light further into each space. Primary functions include a public lobby, dispatch call center, holding cells with secure sallyport, evidence, administration, roll call and locker rooms. An officer break area, porch, and courtyard are designed to create a calming place of respite and recharge where officers can build camaraderie and cultivate community within.

Facility resilience includes a storm shelter for the dispatch area and building efficiency through energy efficient systems to reduce demand, abundant roof overhang to provide sun shading, and use of natural light extending into the primary spaces.

Completion

2023

Size

32,500 SF

Services

Architecture