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See the award-winning design for the NYPD Bomb Squad Headquarters

Squad Goals

See the award-winning design for the NYPD Bomb Squad Headquarters

New York–based firms Rice + Lipka Architects (R+L) and Liz Farrell Landscape Architecture have won a 2017 Award for Excellence in Design for their scheme for the NYPD Bomb Squad Headquarters Building in the Bronx‘s Pelham Bay Park. The New York City Department of Design & Construction (NYC DDC) commissioned the project after the existing facilities were damaged in Superstorm Sandy.

To make the new 10,700-square-foot building more resilient to storm surges, R+L elevated the main programs of training, office, and “robot shop” beyond the required Design Flood Elevation (DFE) floodplain. This new space underneath will become parking for a specialized truck fleet. The resulting apparatus floor is enclosed by cast concrete walls punctured by flood vents that allow for full inundation without damaging the building or its critical systems.

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Resilient cast-in-place concrete walls have vents that allow flood waters to permeate the building without damaging it. Above, an upper massing is wrapped in a corrugated aluminum rain screen covered in a series of photovoltaic panels and mechanical units. Where the original structure once was, native plants will be reintroduced to restore the shoreline ecology. The project embraces NYC’s “80 x 50 roadmap” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a photovoltaic farm and other energy efficient systems including triple-glazing and high R-value wall composition.


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