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Construction Set to Begin on $231.3 Million Police Headquarters |
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The Los Angeles Public Works Board approved a $231.3 million contract on Sept. 27 for the construction of a new police headquarters. The project was awarded to Tutor-Saliba, the sole bidder on the project.
The existing police headquarters, originally named the Police Administrative Building was built in 1955. It was later renamed Parker Center after death of former LAPD Police Chief William H. Parker who died in 1967. The building can be seen in most episodes of the classic television drama Dragnet.
The new facility is being designed by Los Angeles-based DMJM Design, in joint venture with Roth + Sheppard Architects. The new facility will be constructed on a block bordered by 1st, 2nd, Spring and Main Streets, the site of the former Caltrans building, which has been demolished to accommodate the new structure. Construction is slated to begin soon with an anticipated completion of in the summer of 2009.
“The replacement of Parker Center is long overdue,” said Richard Slawson, Executive Secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council. “This project will provide well paying union construction jobs for our members and is an important part of modernizing the infrastructure of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The project is situated just south of City Hall, with the Los Angeles Times building to the west, the new Caltrans building to the east and St. Vibiana’s Cathedral to the southeast. Instead of a boxy building rising to face City Hall, the north tip of the LAPD building’s triangular form presents a narrow building facade on 1st Street, affording greater openness between the PHF and City Hall and generating movement along the strong diagonal axis created between the Civic Center Mall and St. Vibiana’s. A linear park space runs the entire length of the Spring Street block linking the park space on 2nd Street to the south lawn of City Hall. Public park space has been a hotly debated element of the development.
“We’ve worked hard to design a building that will meet the LAPD’s functional needs and at the same time address the open space issue central to the area’s residential community,” says Paul Danna, AIA, principal of DMJM Design.
A glass-walled circulation zone will allow passersby to observe activity within the building. His headquarters will include office space dedicated to police administration and investigation operations, and will accommodate parking for about 365 cars below-grade. Additional personnel parking will be located a block away on Main Street, between 2nd and 3rd streets, south of St. Vibiana’s Cathedral. This structure will also include a light maintenance facility for the Department’s Motor Transport Division (MTD). A third component of the overall project is an additional below-grade public parking structure and public plaza space located at the northwest corner of 1st Street and Judge John Aiso Street.
The facility will be environmentally friendly by utilizing energy efficient mechanical systems, day-lighting, drought-tolerant planting, a “cool roof” system, high-performance glass, water clarifiers and recycled or renewable building materials. To minimize energy consumed in shipping, the architects will use local materials whenever feasible.
Sam Tanaka, P.E., the City’s Program Manager for the new police headquarters, knows the challenges of constructing a public project of this scale: “The City is finally actualizing the long overdue replacement of Parker Center and I expect this project to be a positive addition to the City’s infrastructure, architectural landscape and services provided to the public.”
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