19.5.2008
121st Police Precinct Stationhouse
Has been approved by the Art Commission of the City of New York. The nearly 49,000-square-foot building, commissioned by the New York City Police Department and the Department of Design and Construction, seeks LEED Silver certification, which, under Mayor.
Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030 sustainable design initiative, will make it the first police facility in the city to achieve this designation. Staten Island is the city’s fastest-growing borough in population, necessitating a greater law enforcement presence. The new stationhouse, located on Richmond Avenue in the Graniteville neighborhood, will reduce the response times and relieve the workloads of the island’s two existing precincts. The goal of the design was to satisfy the Police Department’s functional requirements while evoking pride and confidence among local residents.
Designed for an irregular site, the linear structure emerges naturally from the landscape, connecting nearby residential neighborhoods to commercial corridors.
Its ninety-foot cantilevered second floor canopies over the entrance’s wide concrete steps and landscaped approach, reaching out to the street and community beyond.
The stationhouse offers substantial work areas, holding cells, on-site outdoor parking for 108 cars, and its own vehicle fueling station. Rafael Viñoly Architects’ project director for the building is Fred Wilmers, who also led the firm’s recently-opened Bronx County Hall of Justice project team. Scheduled for bid opening in October, construction will begin in March 2009.