Project Description
Leach Mounce Architects recently completed the needs assessment, design and construction management services for a new emergency dispatch center and community room for the City of Santa Clara, CA. The project is a 5,600 square foot single story addition located near the main entrance of the Police Headquarters’s Building. It houses nine dispatch operation station, a community room and training room that is design to be converted to a functioning EOC room.
Dispatch functions are met with integrated lighting level options with natural lighting flowing through the user’s work day. The previous dispatch center was located in an underground bunker that provided no sense of being for it’s occupants. The enjoyment of newly  added windows create a podium for natural lighting which reduces the needs for supplemental lighting through-out the addition. The dispatch was design to meet level 3 bullet resistance fenestration performance.The new administrative offices allowed for the relocation of several staff members from the third floor to the ground floor. A new counter adjacent to the main entry  provides public access functions that served as a place of interaction and police department welcoming.
The new community room is located adjacent to the main entry, easily accessed from the main lobby or a separate exterior entrance from the parking lot. This allows for the room to be used after hours by the community organizations. The rooms includes new technologies (audio visuals equipment, takable surfaces, white boards, over projectors and a kitchenette. It is also design to be a training room for the Police department.
Great care was taken to ensure the integrity of the existing building was protect. The study and research of material selection was crucial, at all phases of the project, to ensure consistency of the building’s architectural language. A new trellis was added to act as a shading device and as well as to matching the exiting building elements. City staff are very pleased with the project and commented on how the new addition is complementary to it’s surroundings.