Police, civic functions come together in one building

The new Gladstone Civic Center combines police and city hall functions under one roof. **(Josh Kulla/DJC)**

Author
Josh Kulla

Date published
May 01, 2020

View original article

The City of Gladstone is preparing to welcome one new building, with two distinct uses.

General contractor P&C Construction is wrapping up work on the Gladstone Civic Center, which will house both the police department and city hall. Punch list items are being tackled, and substantial completion is expected later this month.

Scott Edwards Architecture designed the building. Ground was broken in April 2019.

“We really worked closely with the chief of police and the city administrator early on to develop how this site shook out, so to speak,” said Jennifer Marsicek, a senior associate with Scott Edwards Architecture. “It actually works pretty well to have the police side separate from city hall because of the seismic and the resiliency measures the police side requires that the city hall side doesn’t require. And joining it with a mass-timber lobby really made sense overall.”

The single-story building has slightly fewer than 20,900 square feet – around 13,000 square feet on the law enforcement side. That part of the building is built to Category 4 seismic resilience, while the city hall portion is built to Category 2 resilience. This is in part because the police headquarters also will serve as a city emergency operations center.

The city hall side will house administration, planning and other key departments, as well as a city council chambers that will be able to serve as a municipal court.

A gently tapering public corridor topped with cross-laminated timber panels separates city hall from the police department at the new Gladstone Civic Center. **(Josh Kulla/DJC)**

The two sides are joined by a gently tapered corridor topped with exposed cross-laminated timber panels and glulam columns and beams. Historic photos of Gladstone adorn the corridor walls next to public-facing department entrances.

“With the separation we were basically able to build two separate buildings and do the infill with CLT,” said Will Somme, project manager for P&C Construction.

The two-acre site sits next to the city’s public works facilities and across the street from Gladstone High School. The new complex also will provide additional off-street parking.

Unlike Oregon City’s Robert Libke Public Safety Building, which features CLT wall and ceiling panels, the Gladstone Civic Center has only CLT ceiling panels.

“This is concrete tilt on both sides and you have a wood diaphragm group, whereas out there it’s all CLT and you have all the extra bracing,” Somme said. “You don’t have to go to that extent when you have a concrete tilt structure.”

The Gladstone building’s police side has a backup power generator and water, as well as gas service separate from the civic side.

Exposed heavy timber beams and columns adorn the west entrance to the new building. *(Josh Kulla/DJC)*

“The diaphragm still was a lot of work, specifically on this side, where you saw there’s a break where it goes from a Category 2 to a Category 4 building,” Somme said. “There’s a full seismic joint that runs through the interior of the lobby, so you have that flexibility there.”

Combining practical police needs with more aesthetic civic ones can be a challenge for designers, and Marsicek worked with Lango Hansen Landscape Architects to provide the city with a warm public space filled with plants. Glulam beams even extend outside the building and provide support for planters that will eventually sport fresh vines.

“It was their concept,” Marsicek said. “And with an overall site design that drains into a central swale it made sense to bring that into the building.”

The project was one of the first in Oregon to come together via progressive design-build delivery. In this method the owner retains a design firm and a construction firm early on for joint work on planning, design and construction – with agreement on price and schedule. The method can shorten project schedules, including procurement, and create a single point of responsibility for owners.

“It was a new experience for us,” Marsicek said. “It was really a team effort from the beginning with P&C, the owner and us.”

The method made sense for this particular project, Somme said.

“Contracted police buildings are unusual, and that’s why you typically see a different delivery method based on qualifications,” he said. “Because you just don’t want a contractor to come in, and nothing against them, but to not have that experience, because of what goes into these buildings, it usually doesn’t work.”