Swanke Hayden Connell Architects completes new Office of Emergency Management HQ
A new headquarters in downtown Brooklyn for the New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM), designed by Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (SHCA), has been completed.
The project, undertaken on behalf of The New York City Department of Design and Construction, replaces the former headquarters which was housed in World Trade Center 7 and was destroyed when the building collapsed on September 11, 2001. It will be the first city government agency headquarters in New York to receive a LEED silver rating.
The project involved a re-skin, gut-renovation and addition to a former American Red Cross building on Walt Whitman Park. The new headquarters encompasses approximately 65,000 square feet and includes a 100-person emergency operations centre, general office space, and a press and conference centre.
The building contains the most advanced technology and features available for OEM’s emergency response and planning personnel. It includes a watch command with several workstations, a citywide warning desk, full audio and video recording capabilities, a 15-foot video wall, and state-of-the-art communications tools. Nine conference rooms facilitate interagency training and coordination.
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