Adventure 43: Public Safety Building

The beautiful new building which sits just west of the Salt Lake City Library has had my attention for many weeks. I finally decided to take a closer look. Boy, do I have much to share with you, dear readers! 

I spent a good 20 minutes walking around the front patio, looking at the displays of art, and colorful plaques explaining the departments this building serves, as well as the intention behind the design of the structure.

I have to be honest, I was inspired. This building houses our police and fire departments for downtown. The space in front of it is open and welcoming, even filled with tables and chairs inviting the community into the space.

The biggest change of note for me, since this space has been uncovered from construction dust is, a part of town that was once heavily trafficked by the homeless, is not any more. I'm not sure if it's because the homeless don't like hanging out around the cops, or if they prefer dark corners to open space, but they are nowhere to be seen.

The pillars that support this energy conserving roof each have a plaque of information and invitation.

A few things I learned from taking this walk up the pathway of plaques:

• This building is the first Public Safety building of this scale in the country to achieve a zero-energy operation.
• The design of the building is based on function, and feedback from the community.
• It has roof gardens to reduce the urban heat affect
• It is the first building in Utah built to be operational after a major earthquake

• The open space in front is meant to serve the community, it even teased to expect community events to aggregate here.
• The pieces of art around the structure are meant to express what public safety means to our community

• For example this piece of art that pays tribute to lives lost who have served the public.

• The public is encouraged to come inside to give feedback on how our community can be better with the help of Public Safety
• There is a museum inside 

Well that's all the invitation I needed to step inside. It's quite open and inviting in the front entrance way, and you can see all the way to the top.

I learned upon asking at the security desk that the museum will be on full display in January. In the mean time, these two motorcycles are filling the space that will be the museum.

There are old-timey pictures of the SLC police and fire department throughout the whole building, which are delightful! (sorry about the finger in the picture)

Security sent me Facilities Manager, Officer Bill Silver to answer my questions. He offered to give me a full 1.5 hour tour of the building! Of course I took him up on it. I know my friend, and SWAT enthusiast, Jeff Tueller is going to be jealous. All I have to say to you Jeff is, I'm pretty sure you can get a tour too. Just ask for Officer Silver.

This tour was very comprehensive. Here are a few of the highlights:

• This building has been fully functional since August
• The new media briefing room is designed to have the best possible relationship with the media, full of outlets, and power sources for their equipment. 

• That door on the far left leads to a back room where experts on the related topic can sit and watch the media conference, and send text messages to the speaker to get them answers to questions  quickly and accurately. Cool, right?

• The underground parking lot interferes with water flow to the lake, so they pump out many hundreds of gallons (I wasn't able to verify the exact amount) of water a day from this space this garage takes up. But they pump that water back to the lake, so it doesn't disrupt the ecology of the valley.

• The K9 unit is hardly ever present, but when they are, they have this space with temperature controlled floors for the dog's paws. On the other side of this room are the safes with toys they train with to teach them scents of different narcotics. 

• When we walked into the SWAT area, there was a white board they had to hide from my eyes because they were discussing a unit they were working on casing. Even though I didn't get to see it, it was pretty cool that there was some work happening right there. The SWAT team, 30 members strong is made up of 6 full time SWAT members, the rest being filled in from officers of other departments

• The motorcycle fleet used to be Harley's, but after seeing how much better these BMW's performed with stopping abruptly, a change was made

• SLC is working with West Valley City to have a warehouse to store all evidence, which will end up being on the border of the two cities. In the mean time, they have this room to temporarily store items when they're first retrieved. 

• The K9, bike, and motorcycle departments are hardly ever at a desk, so open work areas such as these are available to them for when they need to fill out reports before hitting the road again.

• There is a nice gym for the use of police and fire departments, which, as it turns out is a safety for the officers. It has happened that an off-duty officer has been recognized while running outside and has been accosted, so an in-house facility is a great resource to keep them from those scenarios.

• Bill mentioned the difference between these two pictures as were were exiting the gym, which I thought was great. The firemen are the good-looking, polished group, while the cops are the rough beat-up looking crew.

• Here Bill is pointing out the roof over the front walkway that actually works to conserve energy. Everything in this building is designed for function.

• The tiered roof here holds the roof gardens. Employees can also access these areas for breaks, and a heckuva (for my Utah readers) view. I might request my work station be among the gardens if I worked here.

• Oh, by the way, these views are brought to you from the window of Deputy Chief, Terry Fritz's office.
• Our fine city spent many months visiting all the best police departments all over the country picking up the best ideas they found, and incorporating them in the new design and function of the new building.

• All offices have an area with chairs which to interact with visitors. No chair faces the desk, so there is never an 'across the desk' scenario.

• I thought I was walking into a newsroom when we entered the dispatch room. Each work station is covered in screens.

• Here is a room that actually shows some of the elements of the seismic design of this building.

• These 'dampers' have silicon and jets inside to counteract the impact of an earthquake. 

• This break room area is designed for employees to take their laptops and work in an open, community space, so that they have that option, or their more isolated desk. Whichever serves their purpose.

My phone battery died, so I came back later to get a few more shots of the exterior. And the light of dusk played beautifully off of the building.

• This pathway is for the public, welcoming all to walk, bike, or skate through.

• Another sculpture dedicated to public service

This building is beautiful! Also, I'm pretty impressed that everything from the design to the signs on the posts invites the community to be a part of it.

My recommendation: stop by and get a tour. You won't regret it. I included a small fraction of my experience here, I encourage you to experience it yourself. I think you'll be amazed. 

Time spent on adventure: 2 hours

Money spent: $0

Recommendation: 9 out of 10 adventure points!