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View from southeast and NYPD Rodman's Neck compound entry.
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North elevation with apparatus bay doors.
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Detail of exterior stair & rainscreen.
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Apparatus floor looking southwest.
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Volume concept diagrams.
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Aerial axon overview looking northeast.
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Light core from entry stair.
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Exterior looking southwest.
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Exterior looking northeast.

NYPD BOMB SQUAD OPERATIONS CENTER

New York City Police Department & NYC/DDC, Pelham Bay Park, Bronx, NY

Proposal 2013
Project 2014-17, 2021-22
Projected Completion 2023-24

Sited on the southern peninsula of Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, the new Bomb Squad Operations Center will replace the specialized unit's existing facilities, heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy. RL elevated the main programs of training, office & robot shop in a simple rectilinear volume raised above the required Design Flood Elevation (DFE) flood plain to create an apparatus floor underneath for Squad's specialized truck fleet. The space is enclosed by cast concrete walls punctured by flood vents that allow for full inundation without damaging the building or its critical systems.

The upper volume is wrapped in a pleated aluminum rainscreen, which visually hovers over the concrete base, separated by a continuous band of clear glass that provides daylighting into the apparatus area. RL sliced through the center of this upper volume with a skylit stair to create internal views and connection between levels. This light core extends up, through the roof allowing daylight to fill the core and filter down around an open, sculptural steel stair.

RL tapered the upper volume to create positive roof drainage and cantilevered the rainscreen north to provide cover for a second, exterior stair. The rainscreen extends up past the roof plane to surround a full series of photovoltaic panels and mechanical equipment. The project embraces NYC's 80x50 roadmap to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with this rooftop PV farm, energy efficient systems, triple-glazing and high R-value wall composition.

Winner of the 2017 NYC Public Design Commission Award for Excellence in Design and 2018 NYCxDESIGN Award Honoree.

Rice+Lipka Architects
Principals: Lyn Rice & Astrid Lipka
Associate Principal: David Prendergast
Associates: Benjamin Cadena & Taylor McNally-Anderson
Sr Project Architect: Joe Malboeuf
Project Managers: Lindsay Harkema, Shannon Sturm, Alexis Kraft
Project Team: Timothy Khalifa, Ahmad Khan, Yiyao Liu, Andrew Mack, Guanyi Zhang, Safaa Alnabelseya, Rachel Kim, Marisa Musing, Alex Siu, Alice Song, Camille Vantalon, Wayne Yan, Emmeily Zhang

Landscape: Liz Farrell Landscape Architecture
Structural: Silman
Geotech: Langan
Civil: Philip Habib & Associates
Environmental: Plus Group
Lighting: Richard Shaver Architectural Lighting
Security, Technology, Audiovisual: Shen Milsom & Wilke
LEED: Plus Group