Designing for Duty: Structures That Protect and Serve

Each year, the Station Design Conference, presented by OFFICER and Firehouse magazines, offers public safety officials who are actively involved in designing a new law enforcement, fire or shared facility a unique learning and networking experience. The 2026 SDC will take place at the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino in Reno, Nevada, with 1-on-One Sessions and workshops held May 18 and the main conference and exposition held May 19-21.

The SDC’s critically acclaimed 1-on-One sessions are comprised of a team of nationally recognized fire station, law enforcement and public safety design architects from around the country. Collectively these firms have been involved in almost 1,000 fire and law enforcement facilities in 45-plus U.S. states and Canada. These experts will personally review and discuss projects at any stage from inception, land acquisition, feasibility, design or construction. Attendees will receive focused expert advice based on where you are in the process, with input and professional recommendations on how best to proceed. The 1-on-One sessions will run from 9.m. to 5 p.m. on May 18.

Pre-conference Workshops will run from 1 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. One of the sessions will feature Paul Michell with the BKV Group presenting “Reaching the Community: Bundling Police and Community Services.” The session will draw on recent projects and emerging national trends to examine collocating community safety and social services directly within or alongside police facilities to create accessible, welcoming spaces for public engagement.

Lakeport Fire Protection District (CA) Fire Chief Patrick Reitz wrote in a statement that the 1-on-One session holds many benefits for attendees. “It is a great opportunity to meet with a large number of architects, consultants and vendors in one place, at one time that specialize in fire stations and training facilities.”

Attendees can preregister for the law enforcement tour of the Reno Public Safety Center, co-sponsored by Spacesaver and TSK. The facility houses the Reno Police Department, as well as its Real Time Intelligence Center and Drone as a First Responder program.

May 19 begins with the welcome and opening remarks and the opening keynote “Next Generation Public Safety Facilities” by Dennis Ross and Patrick Stone from H2M architects + engineers. The session will cover how trends in public safety facilities are beginning to shift to net-zero buildings and technology-heavy systems.

As with past years, the conference will be broken into different tracks. The Law Enforcement Track will include sessions dealing with general information for all attendees but will all pertain to topics that will be of high importance to law enforcement attendees. The track will kick off with “Operations-Based Design: Planning and Building Your Most Effective Police Station,” presented by Candice Wong of CW Design + Management. The session will cover how to address the different operational needs of patrol, investigations, records, booking and the evidence warehouse. How do you begin to understand and prioritize these challenging demands and security issues?

On Wednesday, Jim Stumbo and Kim Parton from Stewart Cooper Newell Architects will present “A Combined Effort – Designing Success into your Shared Facility.” The session will cover the process of designing a facility that houses multiple agencies successfully.

“The Station Design Conference is a truly unique experience in which industry leaders in fire and law enforcement design come together for the sole purpose of supporting, educating, and guiding our nation’s first responder agencies in the pursuit of desperately needed new or improved facilities,” says Brett Hanson, Principle at MACKENZIE and a conference speaker. “We can’t emphasize enough the value this conference can bring to both agency leadership, facility staff and policy makers.”

If your agency is in the process of building a new facility or planning to build one in the next few years, make Erin Rowe/Endeavor Business Media sure to check out this year’s conference.