Garfield Police Headquarters, Garfield, New Jersey
DMR designed the new, 20,000 SF Garfield Police Headquarters in Garfield, NJ, replacing a facility built in the 1960s that no longer met the demands of the four departments and more than 70 personnel that operated from it.
The building, also home to the Traffic Bureau, Detective Bureau and Office of Emergency Management, was dark and uninviting and did not have the required infrastructure to support modern technological needs through telecommunications, data and audio-visual applications. It also lacked a sally port, which meant detainees were brought in from the parking lot, through a series of hallways and steps, sometimes passing the general public, and into cells on the third floor of the building.
The design of the new building, almost triple the size of their previous facility, incorporated needed security mandates, while also ensuring the facility still provided a warm, community presence. DMR was also charged with temporarily relocating the Police Department during the construction of the project.