This facility received the Training Facilities Silver award in the 2021 Officer Law Enforcement Design Awards. Find the full list of winners here.
Bracing for its population to double over the next decade, the City of Raleigh, North Carolina, needed a facility where their expanding police force could complete rigorous training. The new 60,000-square-foot complex is home to basic and lateral-entry law enforcement academies, annual in-service training, advanced reality-based training, and the department’s leadership institute.
The facility houses basic and in-service training rooms, defensive tactics training spaces, reconfigurable scenario rooms, physical training spaces, and a locker room. Innovative elements include video-rich displays and video walls with distance learning capability; interactive monitoring and recording systems to bridge classroom and field training; and simulation training systems. The infrastructure includes networks to accommodate growth for the next 20 years.
Designed to earn LEED Gold certification, the building is equipped with a geothermal HVAC system, occupancy sensors, tubular skylights, and electric vehicle charging stations. High efficiency features will reduce energy costs by 25% and diminish potable water use by nearly 80%.
The design team recognized the building’s potential to not only prepare the police force for the future, but also to honor on its past. Named for the chief who championed the effort, the Cassandra Deck-Brown Museum provides a retrospective of the department’s history and its relationship with the community it serves. Collaborating with an archivist, designers developed a flexible exhibition space within the lobby that showcases a collection of historic artifacts, including uniforms, batons, notebooks, and even early breathalyzers.
The museum became particularly meaningful as the nation experienced civil unrest. “It tells our story…In this environment when there is always one story, people miss the hearts and minds of those who come in to do this job…Despite the dark history policing has in this country, there is a lot of great work that comes every single day to make a difference in the lives of others,” Chief Deck-Brown said.
Architect/Firm Name: Moseley Architects
