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J UNE 2015 | 85 Clarington Police Complex RENDERINGS COURTESY DIALOG Clarington Police Complex by YVAN MARSTON P olice complexes are a tall order. They have to strike a balance on a scale of public opinion that weighs safety and privacy against transpar- ency, accountability and collaboration. And they need to be cost-effective. There are, of course, a lot of things to think about when designing a police build- ing, but to get to the essence of the matter, the team at DIALOG broke it down into what partner-in-charge Jim Anderson describes as the two pragmatic realities: they need to be resilient and secure, while being accessible to the public. "This formed the source of the proj- ect's challenges and from there it was about community presence, site integra- tion and materiality," he explains. W hen the t wo buildings on the 27-acre site in Clarington, Ontario are complete this summer, they will mark the end of Phase One in a two-phase plan that will ultimately see the design and construction of four buildings. Phase One includes a 48,000-square- foot Clarington East Division building. It stands closest to the intersection of Highway 2 and Maple Grove Road, and is the public face of the police complex. Set further back and more unassum- ing is the Forensic Investigation Facility, a 26,000-square-foot, single-storey structure designed for specialized investigation and the careful handling of evidence – an aspect of policing that has grown ever more critical with the importance of DNA testing. Phase Two is yet to be developed and will include a Regional Support Centre and a Centre for Investigative Excellence, a multi-floor office building of approximately 87,000 square feet. The complex is designed to address the Durham Regional Police's infra- structure challenges. Without enough space in the region's existing police station, some officers are based out of other stations. For example, some are stationed in Oshawa, a 10-minute high- way drive west of where they are patrol- ling. Being spread out like this can make it difficult to share information and allocate resources. And there's the fact that the current facility's forensic capa- bilities are in need of upgrading and lack the space the department needs. But there's also a matter of creating a strong civic presence in the community, explains Anderson. "Although the public component of the Divisional building is quite small, it was important that the building should still feel diffused and welcoming," he says. For public users, a landscaped con- crete path leads from the intersection to the centre of the building – an assem- blage of low-rise boxes each announcing a different function within the space – clad in a mix of architectural block, limestone, aluminum composite panel and dark brown brick. "Where we could, we used exterior materials to identify some of the pro- grammatic functions in the building," says project/design architect Steve Sestic. For example, general service support areas (like locker rooms and the garage) are clad in masonry block, and office spaces are clad in brick or limestone. The public facade, along Highway 2, is an integration of all these materials. And whether you're arriving by car or by public transit, you'll gravitate to the building's centre where a glass curtain wall announces the public entrance. Inside the light-filled lobby, the warmth of nat ural wood f inishes defines the information desk while the polished concrete floors speak to the space's robust, utilitarian purpose. "The way we designed the space to have more light meant that the wood could work well in there. It has a warm- ing effect for many of the interior spaces," says Sestic. DIALOG also made use of innova- tive wood products – and highlighted these as key parts of the interior design. Elements such as cross-laminated tim- ber as well as glulam beams and col- umns serve to add warm tones and keep all the glazing and masonry from giving the interior an institutional chill. Besides the small but important public component, the building's main population (170 people) can be divided into two users: the in-house staff and the field officers. Those with jobs that require them to be on site occupy a perimeter of offices, whereas the field officers, whose needs include locker rooms, a parade room for briefings and a report writing area, occupy more space in the building's core. "But we took great care to create programming that would blur the divi- sion between these two user groups and foster collaboration," says Sestic. A lunchroom is situated strategically to encourage casual meetings and cor- ridor arrangements also ensure shared circulation space for these two groups. This focus on collaboration comes from the design's intent to humanize the work environment, which is done in part by providing greater access to views and light. Not only access to daylight – through the use of clerestory lighting and minimizing partitions – but also by applying a strategic approach to the use of windows and glazing. By opening the space for the differ- ent users to see each other, it kept the core from being sombre and served to visually connect the populations. The forensic building, however, is decidedly less transparent. Nestled across the parking lot away from the divisional building, the forensic facility is accessed mainly by a controlled driveway gate. And with no apparent front door, it is truly a non-public build- ing whose 40 or so occupants have a specialized task, centred mainly on examining and preserving the integrity of the evidence and the chain of custody. But before work could even begin on either of these buildings, the site itself required attention and had to be raised. Much of it sits in a low-lying watershed area; in fact, a creek runs through it. Contractor Graham Construction started work in the summer of 2013 and the first order of business was bringing in some seven-million cubic feet of fill to bring the site up by approximately 12 feet. Crews also worked with the local conservation authority to re-route the potentially fish-bearing creek that was on site. It was enhanced to maintain a fish habitat and to mitigate the flood potential it presented. The site was very deliberately natu- ralized, says Sestic, explaining that this landscaping sets the framework for what will be planted in the future. Indeed, there will likely be an oppor- tunity to see the natural surroundings of the site develop as the project contin- ues and as the next phase of the project gets underway. A LOCATION Highway 2 and Maple Grove Road, Clarington, Ontario OWNER Durham Regional Police Service ARCHITECT/STRUCTURAL/MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL/INTERIOR DESIGN DIALOG CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Graham Construction and Engineering LP. CIVIL CONSULTANT MTE Consultants Inc. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT PMA Landscape Architects SIZE 74,000 square feet COST $40 million

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