City of Brentwood - Police Headquarters - Case Study
Location:
Brentwood, Tennessee
Status:
Completed Spring 2021
Size:
56,000 SF
Client:
City of Brentwood
Shop Team:
James Kennon
Cary Sweat
Lacey Hanemann
Michael Kretz
Project Collaborators:
Police Facilities Programming Consultant:
McClaren Wilson & Lawrie
Structural Engineering:
EMC Structural Engineers
MPE/IT/AV/Security/Fire Engineering:
Edmonds Engineering
Civil Engineering:
Ragan-Smith Assoc.
Landscape Architect:
Ragan-Smith Assoc.
Acoustic Consultant:
Roland, Woolworth + Associates
Interior Design:
Brand ID
Signage:
Architect Workshop
General Contractor:
The Parent Company
Awards:
2023 Best of BEGA - Lighting Design Honorable Mention
2022 Associated General Contractors (AGC) BuildTN award for the Middle Tennessee Region
Project Brief:
Designed as a vital community resource for justice and public safety, the structure fosters efficient and effective police services as the new consolidated facility yielding community visibility. Responding to site slope, the two two-level structure separates public interfacing spaces from internal activities, enhancing public visibility and staff safety.
Design for Equitable Communities:
The City of Brentwood, a suburban community in the greater Nashville area, is primarily car-centric but benefits from pedestrian trails and sidewalks connecting community resources like sports fields, a community center, retirement facilities, and the library. The west-facing public side of the new police building directly engages these trails and streets, inviting the community into an open and non-threatening environment. The front plaza and community room, which opens to a shared stormwater pond, were intentionally designed to foster connections between the police and the public. A central staff hub provides every officer a direct view of the community they serve, framed by city, state, and American flags.
The building supports community resilience with a tornado shelter accommodating up to 100 citizens in the community room and essential facility features like natural gas emergency generators to ensure 24/7 operation during emergencies. Designed for long-term growth, the facility anticipates the city's and department’s needs for the next 30 or more years, reducing future relocation or expansion requirements.
Design for Integration:
Endorsed by the city leadership of Brentwood, TN, this project prioritized creating a uniquely beneficial working environment for public safety employees while honoring the community that funds it. Through interviews with leadership across departments, the design team gained a deep understanding of staff’s working lives, stresses, and goals. Departments, previously scattered and constrained, were unified around a central commons area for daily unstructured interactions, lit by a filtered skylight with unobstructed visibility. Centralized break areas foster casual engagement, and graphics throughout the building reinforce cultural norms of duty, care, and gratitude. Building amenities, such as inclusive restroom and locker configurations, encourage participation regardless of gender, while extensive use of glazed partitions ensures access to daylight and connection to colleagues, promoting a less stressful environment. For high-stress roles like 911 dispatch, features such as northern daylight, indirect illumination, and a secure balcony overlooking a pond enhance comfort and retention.
The facility reflects the local character through modern interpretations of stone and brick, with porcelain tile quarried and fabricated within the state. The lobby incorporates a secure interaction zone offering privacy and discretion, while sensitive duties are addressed in spaces designed to lower tension while maintaining safety. Public-facing areas, like the civil court and training classroom, double as community meeting and event spaces, strengthening ties between the public safety services and the community. With features like indirect daylight harvesting, high-performance technology, and careful attention to local materials, the building balances functional excellence, aesthetic appeal, and community integration, resulting in a space that supports both its users and the public it serves.
Design for Ecosystem:
The design focused on durable long-life materials such as stone, brick, phenolic cladding, and aluminum panels to ensure the exterior was low maintenance for the city. A modified bitumen roof was selected over cheaper single-ply roofing to provide an expected 30-50-year lifespan, while decentralized mechanical systems were implemented for greater air filtration and user control of their environment. The site design prioritized native plant materials, reductions in stormwater runoff, and the use of dark sky lighting for parking areas. Extensive tree planting in buffers, exceeding minimal requirements, was included as part of the overall site buffering and safety provisions.
Design for Economy:
Based on directives and goals set during early project meetings and community meetings, the project sought to balance the space needs of the department against the financial constraints of the city resources. The design team recognized the facility was to be designed with a 50-plus year horizon for use focused on material selections that provided long term value and would not become a burden to the city's annual budgeting cycles.
As explained elsewhere in this submission exterior materials were chosen for their long term life-spans - brick, stone, bitumen roofing. The interior materials likewise focused on durability and longevity, while trending away from color palettes that could quickly become dated. Ceramic tile wainscot and floors protect the corridors, epoxy flooring protects secondary utility spaces, carpet was minimized to office spaces for acoustical concerns. The central hub space is clad in phenolic paneling giving a visually rich character to the space with low maintenance and high durability.
Structural systems of concrete and steel were evaluated, and steel was selected for it's economy and long term flexibility and greater span capacity allowing larger open spaces.
Daylight was a driving focus which is manifest the the narrow width of the facility yielding exterior views to most spaces.
Interestingly the design team recommended a gender neutral locker room to provide the greatest long term flexibility as the demographics of police staff is trending to a greater mix of male and female officers. But to the Chief's consternation his female officers rejected this idea, resulting in the split male and female locker rooms.
Design for Energy:
The project's organization benefits from a site which includes a slope approximately equal to one building story. By integrating this feature, the building was capable of nesting the lower floor fully underground along the north face and exposed for public access along the south face. This suggested a functional organization in which areas where windows are detrimental (such as firearms and related training areas) could be located on the lower floor. The remaining portion of the lower floor is occupied by the public lobby, which features an expansive canopy for solar control and rain protection.
Offices and communal spaces which benefit the most from daylight were located on the upper floor where the exterior wall is shaded by a generous 16-foot roof overhang.
Additionally, great care was provided in detailing and observation on site to ensure a well-sealed building envelope. The building's insulated glazing makes use of three different compositions to address the shading needs of a south-facing wall, the transparency needed for a public lobby, and the increased visible light available on the north face.
The primary manner in which the project addresses net zero energy and carbon is with an eye toward extending the building's lifespan beyond that of a typical facility, minimizing the lifecycle costs of material extraction, fabrication, and transport. Prioritizing long-term lifecycle benefits over more immediate returns, the project includes the selection of durable materials and the use of a high-performance VRF mechanical system.
The largest potential for performance improvements are feasible through the building's energy source. Municipal electricity provides a majority of the building's energy. This makes it dependent on the energy generation technology used by the utility provider, but it also makes it an immediate beneficiary of improvements in the utility's technology. Moreover, a layered system of backup energy sources including a UPS, two generators, and a mobile generator docking station provide redundant power sources should the opportunity arise to make transitions in the future.
Design for Well-being:
The job of a police officer and a dispatcher is a high-level stress occupation. The building sought to provide spaces to relieve the stress with several key ideas. Workspaces maintain direct access to the exterior for visual access to sunlight and weather. Dispatch integrated its own kitchen and break area, including an outdoor balcony for quick breaks from the stress of a 911 dispatcher shift. The facility includes quiet rooms for those moments when an officer or dispatch needs time to step aside to gather themselves emotionally before continuing their work shift. The overall composition of the building created a safe zone where officers can be relaxed and know they will not accidently cross paths with the public that might not understand the stress of their job. this safe zone includes the departmental briefing roof, staff break, locker rooms, and the central circulation and communication area of the building. Departments are arranged around this central spine allowing staff to retreat to their individual work areas but return to the shared community area.
Design for Discovery:
The project began with a goal-setting session to establish key criteria for the project to be determined as a success for the client
these were the guidelines as the team worked together through possible outcomes extensive field trips were taken to visit similar facilities and learn from their outcomes and lessons learned from their facilities extensive research was undertaken to understand furniture systems comparability with a police work environment with a focus on the unique aspect of workflows of each segment of the police force overall building circulation for the staff was shaped to encourage interaction between the departments and foster an overall sense of community and spirit corp for the police department as a community-based organization extensive inspirational signage was integrated into the facility to remind the staff of their purpose and role in the community.