The City of Waukee selected OPN Architects to design a new state-of-the-art, 90,000 square-foot facility to serve as headquarters for the Waukee Police and Fire Departments, with roughly 30,000 square feet of that dedicated to fire station functions. Health, wellness, and performance have been at the forefront of the design process to ensure the well-being of the first responders that will use the facility so that they can, in turn, provide exceptional service to the growing community of Waukee.
The new Public Safety Facility will include new modern work areas while accommodating future growth and incorporating a secure indoor police fleet parking garage. The building contains offices, meeting rooms, work rooms, kitchenettes, training rooms, dayroom, investigations and evidence areas, fitness area and locker rooms, sleeping quarters for overnight fire personnel, specialized storage and support spaces, as well as four double-length apparatus bays for fire department vehicles with an attached training mezzanine. The secure garage parking will accommodate approximately 23 police vehicles, as well as 12 dedicated spaces for fire apparatus in bays with additional exterior surface parking for approximately 65 staff vehicles and 40 miscellaneous parking stalls to serve the building users and public.
The project team has incorporated several site-based sustainable approaches to water management along with inclusion of native landscaping. The project also has the ability to reach net zero building operation through utilization of a geothermal approach to heating and cooling loads as well as high-efficiency, all-electric systems. To offset the electrical load a photovoltaic (PV) array with a system sized for more than half the building’s operations is included, with infrastructure to accommodate up to 600 kW to achieve net zero energy standards.
