OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Overview

The cost of this new North Precinct building for the Seattle Police Department (SPD) caused some consternation in 06/2016, as it rose from $90 to $160.2 million rapidly. Seattle Times columnist Brier Dudley wrote on 05/05/2016: "The city initially budgeted $88 million for a 60,000-square-foot precinct, including maximum construction costs of roughly $35 million. Now, as the city finalizes plans and prepares to build in 2017, it’s planning a 106,082-square-foot precinct house with a 241,019-square-foot parking garage.... The budget is now $160.2 million: $14.2 million for land and $145 million for the building, including $94 million for construction costs and fees." (See Brier Dudley, Seattle Times, "Fancy police precinct building, but where are the police to fill it?" accessed 08/11/2016.) The building needed to be large for several reasons. First, it had to be resilient, a popular word c. 2016, meaning that it had to withstand both natural disasters, most specifically, earthquakes, and manmade challenges, i.e., terrorist attacks. Second, its size grew, as it had to handle the additional police personnel, 200 new officers, promised by Mayor Ed Murray in his 02/2016 State of the City address. It was re-designed to accommodate 420 people, a large increase over the old precinct, and would contain a firing range and capacious community assembly room. Following excessive force incidents nationwide (and several in Seattle) involving police, added police training was mandated by the U.S. Justice Department. KUOW.org reported: " O’Toole said the building’s firing range will allow officers to do the sophisticated training required by a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department. 'We’re doing six times the amount of training right now that we were doing pre-consent decree,' she said. 'So we definitely need space to accommodate that training, and that is the new normal.'" (See Amy Radil, KUOW.org, "Seattle Police have fancy plans for North Precinct. Critics raise an eyebrow," accessed 08/11/2016.) Training would be varied, necessitating large, flexible rooms for various purposes. The building would, as configured, sprawl over two blocks and include a 3-story. 241,019-square-foot garage for fleet, officer and public parking.

To pay the additional $72 million needed to build the enlarged North Precinct Station, Mayor Murray proposed in 04/2016 to sell the city's downtown Pacific Place parking garage to help finance the expenditure.

Building Notes

According to the web site of the building's engineers, Swenson Say Faget, "The precinct building will be a cast-in-place concrete structure clad with metal panels over masonry, concrete and framed walls with ballistic protection. The parking garage structure will be a cast-in-place and post-tensioned concrete structure.The Precinct building has LEED Platinum and Net Zero Ready sustainability goals." (See Swenson Say Faget, "North Precinct Police Station, Seattle, Wash.," accessed 08/11/2016.)

PCAD id: 20432