This facility received the Public Safety Centers Gold Award in the 2021 Officer Law Enforcement Design Awards. Find the full list of winners here.
The City of Lake Oswego Police Department, 911 Dispatch, and City Hall needed a new building to better serve the community. The City hired the design team to develop a concept and design a building that would meet their current and future needs.
The project is located on a challenging site, which slopes nearly 26 feet from the northwest corner to the southeast corner of the building. The design solution nestled the building into the hill, allowing natural protection for the highly secure police areas. This also allowed the entirety of the City Hall functions to be located above grade, and allowed for plentiful daylight access to the less secure police functions in the southeast corner.
The building contains multiple city functions, all with their own unique sets of requirements. The building has a public three-story lobby that stiches together the public interfaces for the police department, building department, administration, and court. The north side of the third floor houses the Council Chambers, which is transformed into a court room on Wednesdays and an emergency operations center in the event of an emergency. The north elevator provides a secure path to escort detainees from the sally port in the basement to the court room, through a secure vestibule. The large programmatic requirements, combined with a small site and economical budget meant that every opportunity for efficiency was optimized by the design team.
Taken as a whole, the new city hall is an expression of the community, and a long-term investment in civic culture. The new facility has provided an immense improvement to the police department operations. Additional space, as well as an updated layout, will provide a place for the department to better serve the public from for decades to come.
Architect/Firm Name: Mackenzie