Though preserving the street-facing facade of the New Canaan Police Department as part of a rebuilding project is possible, doing so likely would cost more than razing the South Avenue structure and starting anew, according to two architects that town officials are considering for the job.
It’s “realistic” to preserve the brick-and-columns facade of what opened in 1927 as the original New Canaan High School, though “it would be at a cost that would be at or exceed new construction,” Brian Humes of Berlin-based Jacunski Humes Architects, LLC told members of the New Canaan Police Department Building Committee during their regular meeting Thursday.
“It can be done,” Humes said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “It’s not something that we can’t do. There would be a cost to doing it, though.”
Deciding whether it makes the most sense to renovate the existing police headquarters or build anew—and, if new construction is the best route, whether to build on the current site, expand behind the existing building or do it somewhere else—are the major questions now facing the newly appointed seven-member Committee.
Members heard from Humes and Chuck Boos of New Britain-based Kaestle Boos Associates, Inc, who made cases for why they should be selected for the project, talked about their work and fielded questions from the Committee.
Regarding the facade of NCPD, Boos said that “a building of that particular size could easily digitize facades and replicate it in new construction that meets all the codes.”
“That’s probably cheaper than trying to save what’s there,” he said.
The New Canaan Police Department got its last major renovation in 1981. Officials have called for a project there for years. In 2017, a panel that studied and made recommendations about town-owned buildings in New Canaan said the town should fund architectural and engineering needed for renovations. Yet since then, the town has considered re-locating NCPD entirely.
Stuart Sawabini, a former Police Commission chair who is advising the Committee as director of New Canaan’s Community Emergency Response Team, estimated that—given about $2 million to $3 million needed to temporarily house NCPD during construction—at $700-per-square-foot construction costs for an approximately 25,000-square-foot building, New Canaan would be looking at about $20 million to renovate the existing South Avenue building. Building anew elsewhere would save the temporarily housing costs, and would mean the town could sell the existing building, Sawabini noted.
Asked what criteria he considers in siting a new police station, Humes said buildable area (about 2.5 acres) and location are major considerations.
“We try to put it on a main thoroughfare or a main street, something that is identifiable to the public,” he said. “We try to avoid residential areas. I know in Bethel we put it right next to an educational facility and in Bethel that was a benefit to put it next to schools. We also look to get two ways on and off the site. So that is another IACP [International Association of Chiefs of Police] recommendation that we have two means of egress, two means of access on and off the site. So we will look at that too. That is for response time and if there happens to be something blocking one entrance or exit, that doesn’t block police services to the community.”
Boos and colleagues from his firm answered the same question by saying access to municipal water and sewer were top considerations, along with topography and site constraints such as wetlands and adjacent buildings.
Though a cottage located behind the existing police station could be converted into a temporary public-facing base for administrative staff, one challenge of the NCPD site is that “it’s urban and the lay-down is going to be tough for a contractor because there’s not a lot of space there to actually build a building and let the existing building or let the cottage section function as a police facility during construction,” Boos said.
“So it’s not without its challenges and if it has challenges that means the cost is going to go up,” he said. “But anything is doable.”
Hume also said that renovating the existing building is possible though difficult. He noted that the existing square footage of the police station is 27,400 square feet, and that—given an indoor firing simulation area of 600 square feet, rather than a certification length firing range—the proposed new building’s square footage is 24,500.
“The building, while you have square footage there, it’s an older building,” Humes said. “It needs work. It needs a lot of things to happen, but it also needs to function as a police station while the renovations take place. Which creates its own concerns.”
Those concerns include the inconvenience of moving the Police Department into temporary construction and ensuring the agency gets “all you want” in a new building that is designed specifically for a police function.
Bill Walbert as Committee co-chair led the meeting. Committee member Penny Rashin asked whether Hume had looked at where New Canaan may re-site police functions temporarily during a construction project.
Hume said that based on past projects, the town likely would split the Police Department into three functions during construction: prisoner processing and detention would be handled off-site, likely in another town; the administrative and patrol staff would need about 10,000 square feet in a leased space that also serves as a place to welcome the public; and dispatch would need its own protected and dedicated space.
Committee members said the town budgeted $500,000 for the current fiscal year for architectural and engineering services on the police station project, and that town’s capital plan includes a $7.5 million earmark for fiscal year 2022 for the project.
The Committee decided to schedule a special meeting to decide on which architectural firm to go with for the morning of Feb. 24, saying it would post a notice as soon as agenda items had been settled.