In 2008, the City of Sunrise, located at the far western edge of Broward County, southeast Florida, embarked on a project to upgrade and consolidate their public safety facilities. The city, which had a population of approximately 95,000 people, had a balanced mix of ethnic makeup and a diverse tax base. The city is home to the Sawgrass Mills Mall, one of the largest outlet shopping malls in the United States at that time, and was host to over 100 corporations, including Motorola, Sony, and Sprint PCS. The community encompassed more than 18 square miles and was committed to improving the residents’ quality of life through prudent capital improvements, including the public safety complex designed by Architects Design Group. Sunrise maintains a long-standing commitment to developing and maintaining itself as a sustainable community that preserves the past while planning for the future. The city charged ADG with the goal of promoting sustainable building strategies in the design of the facility.
The project site was located on the city’s municipal complex which also included city hall, library, senior center, and a cultural / community center. These existing buildings presented a context for the design that provided a reference through colors, materials, and complimentary details, creating a unified sense of identity within the complex. During the project planning phase, ADG examined vehicle and pedestrian access, utility network, and overall site infrastructure connections with recommendations for modification to benefit current municipal complex functionality and enhance future improvements.
The 132,800-SF public safety complex provides the city a secure, storm-hardened, state-of-the-art, technologically sophisticated center for police and fire-rescue services. A five-story public safety building houses the entire operations of the police department’s 300 employees, and includes joint-use Broward County / City of Sunrise 911 Communications Center (PSAP), municipal emergency operations center, city-wide management information services (M.I.S.) data center, an indoor eight-lane firing range, and fire-rescue administration / training facilities. Also located on the site with direct access to the city’s main traffic arterial is the two-story Fire Station No. 72. Both buildings are served by a central energy plant which provides 100% redundancy to all critical infrastructure components, ensuring that the facilities remain operational during and immediately after a natural disaster or man-made incident.
The project was designed and constructed to incorporate sustainable systems and materials, as well as to provide an inviting environment to the public. Some of the strategies used to create this environment include:
Updated: 2020. Click here to view the original publication.
