After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the Northeast faced more than $70 billion of structural damage to homes, roads, businesses, and public buildings. The Nassau County Police 8th Precinct required renovations to support its growing police force and resolve problems of an outdated and damaged infrastructure. The project team turned to an all-precast-concrete design to achieve its goals and reach new levels of physical durability.
Total precast concrete projects offer greater resiliency, logistics, and aesthetics. The team was able to modernize the police precinct’s structural and aesthetic design and accelerate the project timeline—all while one part of the building remained open for operations. In its completion, the Nassau County Police 8th Precinct won the 2019 PCI All-Precast Concrete Solution Award.
Explore the flexibility of total precast concrete, so you can better determine if it’s right for your next project. To learn more about benefits of a total precast design, watch the video below.
Structural Resiliency
After Hurricane Sandy, the 8th District wanted to replace the traditional 1950s frame and brick precinct buildings with structures that could withstand future extreme weather events. Precast concrete met the team’s high-quality objectives with inherent durability and physical resiliency, while remaining low maintenance for the owner.
Precast concrete allowed for enhanced functionality in space planning. The team utilized hollowcore planks with thirty-two-foot spans supported by six columns to create expansive, open-floor areas. Large, punched windows in the concrete panels provide natural lighting, and the wall area between windows provides flexible placement of interior partitions. A building envelope featuring precast concrete sandwich wall panels also provided continuous insulation and energy conservation.
Logistic Solutions
Construction was constrained in a long, narrow job site, and the team was under pressure to complete the new precinct building quickly because part of the building remained open for operations. Despite these unique logistical challenges, precast concrete empowered the project team to work efficiently and effectively without sacrificing high-performance objectives.
Off-site fabrication of the building material compressed the on-site construction schedule. Not only did precast concrete avoid weather delays and minimize disruptions, but it also accelerated installation of the precinct. Erection of the total precast concrete structure was completed in just two months.
Aesthetic Flexibility
This project was the third in a series that LiRo Architects + Planners P.C. designed for Nassau County police. The façade features exposed, buff-colored precast concrete panels with an acid-etched finish detail that maintains a consistent visual relationship with the other precincts as well as the surrounding public infrastructure.
Precast concrete provided the flexibility needed to meet the project’s budget, modernization, and durability goals while creating a cohesive architectural message that expresses permanence and dignity. The highlight of the new precinct’s design is the heraldic lion of the county seal, which was cast directly into the precast concrete façade using a CNC-cut foam mold and communicates civic pride.
Learn More About Precast, Prestressed Concrete
Learn why precast concrete was chosen to rebuild the Nassau County Police 8th Precinct in the video above and share the success story of this total precast concrete structure with your industry peers and clients.
Interested in learning more about precast and how the precasters of the PCI Mid-Atlantic Chapter support projects of all kinds? Explore the PCI Mid-Atlantic Solutions Center for helpful resources and get in touch with PCI-MA for precast information, higher education partnerships, and more.
