Archinect - News

Philly's infamous police headquarters faces an uncertain future as a symbol of brutality

2023-02-06T18:51:00-05:00

The city of Philadelphia is prepared to release a report detailing a months-long community engagement effort officials say will inform the fate of the Roundhouse, the unusual concrete building that served as police headquarters for more than six decades. Many of the residents who participated in that process said they want to see the shuttered building at 7th and Race streets repurposed as a community hub that recognizes the site’s long history of police abuse.

Philadelphia has a long-frayed relationship between its police department and the community, including most notably the 1985 MOVE Bombing that claimed the lives of 11 activists while displacing another 250 people and destroying 61 homes. The Roundhouse has a central role in this fraught history, and now opinions are split over its proposed future redevelopment.

Robert Geddes, one of the building’s three designers has chimed in to say he feels it should be given a second life as a font for social justice activities and other types of community-based activism. The 125,000-square-foot Brutalist-style structure has also been floated as the potential site of affordable housing, though its layout remains difficult to convert by most estimates.

A final decision on its fate is expected sometime within the calendar year.

New Bronx police station designed by Bjarke Ingels aims to improve police and community relations

2018-07-13T15:54:00-04:00

Ground has finally broken for a police station in the South Bronx that will provide a new home for NYPD's 40th Precinct. Expected to open in 2021, the precinct will be leaving its current space, a three-story, 1920s Renaissance Revival building, for a shiny, 68-million-dollar new one, designed by none other than Bjarke Ingels.

“We were working in a century-old building that was designed for century-old policing methods. Now we’re changing that with a modern facility made for modern, neighborhood policing" said NYPD Commissioner James O'Neil.

Bronx is one of the city's poorest districts, as well as its most crime-ridden. And newly released data shows it to be increasing; the murder rate nearly doubled in the first half of 2018. Officials hope the new facility could help change that, with a community oriented design believed to foster transparency and communication between the police and local residents.

From the outside, the building is shaped like a stack of bricks. Meant to refer...

Civic beacon or bunker? Photographer Kris Graves documents all of New York City’s 77 police precincts.

2018-03-13T15:06:00-04:00

What’s the difference between a school, a library, and a police precinct? They’re all civic institutions designed to communicate their contribution to a well-functioning society. [...] Kris Graves photographed every one of New York City’s 77 precinct station houses for Urban Omnibus. The blue and white car, the badge, and the uniform all communicate “police” on city streets, but the building, the police’s permanent home in the neighborhood, conveys a particular message. What does it say?

If you enjoyed photographer Kris Graves documenting the grid-disrupting topography of the Bronx for Urban Omnibus a while ago, you'll love his latest piece: Beacon / Bunker, a series of photographs of every one of New York City’s 77 police precinct station houses across the five boroughs. "Whether the precinct is a reassuring beacon of safety or a bunker of malfeasance may depend more on individual or collective associations than on the architecture."

40th Precinct, Bronx. © Kris Graves.

23rd Precinct, Manhattan. © Kris Graves.

105th Precinct, Queens. © Kris Graves.

Find the complete set of all 77 NYC precincts over at Urban Omnibus.

How Jeanne Gang wants to make police stations community-friendly

2016-04-05T17:58:00-04:00

“A police station could be welcoming...And if you can remake space, you can change a culture." Out of that comes Polis Station...Working in their home city, [Studio Gang] looked at a typical station on the troubled West Side. Their proposal reimagines the station house, placing the secure areas at the back and a variety of public services – a library, daycare, mental-health-care providers and a community room – all sharing a grand public entrance and adjacent to new park space.

Lidköping Police Building Proposal by LETH & GORI

2012-01-03T13:18:05-05:00

Copenhagen architects LETH & GORI have shared with us their entry in the open competition for a new police headquarter and public parking facilities in Lidköping, Sweden. The project site is an open square on the border of Lidköping’s historical urban plan from 1672. The site is an important entrance point to the historic city and one of the design objectives of the competition was how to emphasize this.