121ST POLICE PRECINCT STATION HOUSE in New York City by Rafael Viñoly Architects

Article source: Rafael Viñoly Architects

Recognizing the need for a greater law enforcement presence and the opportunity for great civic architecture, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) commissioned Rafael Viñoly Architects to design a station house for Staten Island’s first new precinct in decades, the 121st Precinct.

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte

• Architects: Rafael Viñoly Architects
• Project: 121ST POLICE PRECINCT STATION HOUSE
• Location: New York City, US
• Photography: Bruce Damonte

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte

The design solution responds to the challenges of a sloped site adjacent to a residential neighborhood with two distinct building volumes: a two-story linear bar, gently arcing in plan and gradually increasing in height as it approaches the commercial district of Richmond Avenue, and a one-story volume at the point where the site extends outward to the south. The second floor cantilevers ninety feet toward Richmond Avenue in a symbolic gesture of community engagement that defines the main entrance and creates a visual link between the main lobby and the street.

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte

The two building masses are distinguished by varied heights, differing surface treatments—horizontal stainless-steel cladding on the long bar, and gray brick on the one-story volume—and a skylight over the interstitial space between them, which brings natural light into the ground-floor lobby. The long bar structure also shields the residential neighborhood to the north from the police parking lot to the south. Outdoor mechanical services are concealed within the building form and integrated into an enclosure clad in the same stainless steel.

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte

The building program includes officer and detective work areas, administrative offices, locker rooms, holding cells and prisoner processing, muster room, interview rooms, lounges, evidence and records storage, vehicle fueling station, screened parking, and evidence vehicle storage.

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte

The building is designed to achieve an energy cost reduction of 25%.  Sustainable design strategies include the use of recycled asphalt pavement in driving lanes, permeable surfacing in low-traffic parking spots and five bio-retention cells that captures the rain that falls within the property in order to reduce the amount of water that enters the sewer system.

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte

As the community face of the NYPD in Staten Island, the 121st Police Precinct Station House is a model for sustainable design. When it achieves LEED Silver certification the station house will be the first police facility in the city so designated under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030 sustainable design initiative.

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte

Features:

90-foot cantilever engages community and creates canopied entryway

Bar-shaped building stretches to fill site, shields neighborhood from parking and back-of-house areas

First police facility in New York City designated LEED Silver

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte

Mission

Staten Island is the fastest growing borough of New York City in terms of population. Recognizing the need for a greater law enforcement presence and the opportunity for great civic architecture, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) commissioned Rafael Viñoly Architects PC to design a station house for Staten Island’s first new precinct in decades, the 121st Precinct. The 121st was created from the western regions of Staten Island’s 120th and 122nd Precincts, while the 123rd at the southern tip of the island remained unchanged. With this new jurisdiction and a new, 52,000-square-foot building as its headquarters, the NYPD aims to cut response times and relieve the workloads of the borough’s existing precincts.

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte

Design

The design solution of the 121st Police Precinct Station House responds to the challenges of its irregular site, which narrows where it faces the commercial corridor of Richmond Avenue, widens toward the residential neighborhood at the rear, and faces the cemetery to the south with a jagged boundary line. To give the station house an expanded civic presence and to minimize its impact on the surrounding residential neighborhood, it needed to be massed toward the commercial district, with the main lobby and surrounding public functions located as close to Richmond Avenue as possible.

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte

Site

The site for the 121st Police Precinct Station House is located at 970 Richmond Avenue in Graniteville, a low-density residential neighborhood of one- and two-story buildings near the northwestern corner of Staten Island. The irregularly shaped plot is bounded by Richmond Avenue to the east, Wilcox Street to the north, Sanders Street to the west, and the Baron de Hirsch and Hillside Cemeteries to the south.

Image Courtesy © Rafael Viñoly Architects

Program

The 121st Police Precinct Station House is the community face of the NYPD in Staten Island, and it offers the usual range of police functions—room for clerical functions, a police detective unit, the commanding officer and his staff, evidence and equipment storage, and necessary officer services like locker rooms and break areas. The smaller one-story volume to the south houses the detective unit, the police muster room, and detainee areas, though there is no overnight holding at this particular station house. Additionally, there are 108 parking spaces, enough for three shifts of police vehicles, along with an on-site fueling station.

Image Courtesy © Rafael Viñoly Architects

Image Courtesy © Rafael Viñoly Architects

Image Courtesy © Rafael Viñoly Architects

Tags: New York City, US

Category: Police Station

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2015 at 9:47 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.