COMPLETED: Public Safety Complex

[The Voice of Reason]

I have searched these forums looking for several key words and can not find a thread, and since this is likely the largest project the city will see for the next 3 years I thought it deserved its own thread.

The city is pushing forward with the construction of an $85 Million new Public safety complex.

This project recently passed through the planning and zoning department. 01/27/2009

The mayor has asked for financial assistance from the main street stimulus package to help absorb $25M of the cost.

There was apparently a groundbreak back in 2007

RENDERINGS that I am not sure I have seen on here yet. but I found them easily with a google images search

Here are some press releases available on the Police web site and the city web site.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

11:30 a.m.--- Mayor Eddie A. Perez says the central location of the new Public Safety Complex is key to the first line of defense.

*Facility will house first responders--- police, fire administration, fire marshals and central dispatch.

*Significant new investment on Downtown/Clay Arsenal border

*Brings police closer to the community it serves--- the entire city

*Saves historic building

*Facility is an energy efficient or "green" building too! The facility will be heated, cooled, and electric power will be supplied by a central fuel cell system.

[The Voice of Reason]

I need to add that this is under construction. or something.

there have been those verticle lifts over there and there was a Backhoe last weekend.

It appears as though they are gutting the historic building they are keeping, maybe doing asbestos work?

no real idea, but I think all the windows are removed now. the building definately "looks" like work is being done.

never have my camera with me when I am in the area, so no idea if I will ever remember to specificly drive by to snap some photos.

anyone else ever go by want to snap a few?

[The Voice of Reason]

There is now a large black crane on the site, and I saw that the backhoes have been doing some serious digging on the site. If I were to venture a guess, I would say they have dug the hole for the foundation, and are now going to use the crane to put in the foundation pilings and such.

[The Voice of Reason]

This is the best I can do from my office

[The Voice of Reason]

Found this in a city PFD about North End developments

It has a nice profile view that shows how massive this building is and has details including the underground garage.

might be hard to see though in the JPeg

[HartfordTycoon]

This really is a pretty massive project. Sometimes I forget how many jobs this is going to bring to that area. It has the potential to really improve things rather drastically.

[The Voice of Reason]

today.

its a shame because I cant see much from my office.

maybe I will try and get up to 14 to snap a few pictures.

[grock]

That whole neighborhood has so much potential. Imagine if Mayor Perez hadn't pushed out WFSB to Rocky Hill there would be a new television station there right now.

[The Voice of Reason]

So I went up to the top floor and took pictures from a few different angles including out on the Balcony. check out my photothread for most of the rest of them. but like I said I will do this again at least once before I lose my job here.

and finally I got you some pictures of excavation happening!!!

ok so its just a backhoe behind a construction trailer

[beerbeer]

The Courant has an editorial on the complex today, basically a paragraph saying very little.

[The Voice of Reason]

First a statement: they are tearing the roof off of that 1891 school building right now. looks like thye will be doing a complete roof replacement. pretty wild looking right now. I guess I need to bring the camera in more often with all the stuff happening out my window.

So, here is a question. in your opinion is the kind of seperated quasi gated quasi suburban development represented in Park Place viable in Hartford?

I know park place was supposed to be 3x as big, and I could see more development happening there still some day, but looking at a map made me think.

Asking this because I-91 seperates the city from its waterfront, but in one small place this is almost a good thing.

Up on jennings road where the police HQ currently sits, there is a relatively small chunk of land up there right on the river. this chunk of land is not really desirable at face value, but if you concider that the dump is now closed and could easily be concidered a hilly park. or easily turned into a hilly park. the river is the river, so thats a plus, and its seperate from the north end because of the highway. You got a few low density warehouse/industrial properties over there, the soon to be old police HQ buildings, and one fairly modern warehouse. as best I can tell the most valuable thing there, ot maybe the only valuable thing there is the warehouse.

could a park place type development work on this waterfront land?

it is Dump/park to the north, River to the East, and Park/boathouse to the South. I-91 to the West

Mind you the other use I see for this land after the police leave would be for I-91 to bend and cross the river connecting to E-Hartfords Highway interchange and allow for I-91 to be removed from downtown Hartford.

[The Voice of Reason]

Roof is half gone and coming down as I type.

[The Voice of Reason]

Pardon the quality.

all the shots of the public safety complex from my office require I use maximum digital zoom, so the quality degrades, and its not like I am using a tripod or anything..

but I captured a birdie in one of these

[The Voice of Reason]

super minor changes. taken today

[beerbeer]

HBJ article, on schedule, under budget.

City’s Public Safety Complex On Target {sodEmoji.|} Hartford Business

[MadVlad]

HBJ article, on schedule, under budget.

City’s Public Safety Complex On Target {sodEmoji.|} Hartford Business

As every project should be....

[The Voice of Reason]

I hope this project makes some real progress this spring. I would have thought there would be more done by now.

clearly there is a huge ammount of infrastructure to be built into this, but it looks like nothing has changed in 6 months. (mind you I can not see foundation stuff, so maybe a lot has been done)

[MadVlad]

From the backside, there are only walls left, this building was totally gutted and I'll be interested to see how it turns out.

[mikel]

It's all going to be torn down now. What a terrible effort.

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-hartford-school-demolitionapr10,0,879973.story

[The Voice of Reason]

It's all going to be torn down now. What a terrible effort.

http://www.courant.c...demolitionapr10,0,879973.story

this link will work me thinks

http://blogs.courant.com/cityline/2010/04/demolition-derby.html

this totally sucks.

i really hope they at least save the front

look at my pics.. its a nice building

[The Voice of Reason]

OK, so here is the link to the newest article about the facade.

http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-hartford-public-safety-0412.artapr11,0,3509205.story

I was bothered by the loss of this old and actually quite cool looking building, but I am going to let this one slide.

the reason is this part of the article

"Demolition is expected to occur in the first two weeks of May, with new construction following. The new complex will be a replica of the old building, complete with unique features that are being saved, Crocini said.

David Panagore, the city's chief operating officer, said Friday that the architects tried their best to preserve the facade and that demolition was not the city's preferred alternative."

The Bold part was me, and really, thats all i care about.

saving the actual bricks would be nice since old buildings havd a special warmth to them, but if they do this correctly I am optimistic that we will get a nice project here.

[HartfordTycoon]

It's very disappointing but not surprising considering that the Perez Administration half asses everything. The only silver lining to me would be if we are going to save money now that we don't have to incorporate the old with the new. If this allows them to construct it more quickly and for less money then I'm OK with that aspect of it.

[Luca Brasi]

It's very disappointing but not surprising considering that the Perez Administration half asses everything.

Agreed... is this another quality job by Carlos Costa or another buddy of Perez? There is no way that if the proper steps were taken, this architectural gem couldn't have been saved. Even to someone like myself, who has no knowledge of the subject, leaving the fragile 100+ year old walls standing precariously alone all winter seemed foolish. It doesn't surprise me this is the result. They seemed ready to fall over in a stiff breeze.

Another historic building in Hartford... and a beautiful one at that... into the trash heap. This city will never learn.

[MadVlad]

It saved Eddie money that he'll doubtlessly try to funnel into his defense fund...

[ConnMan]

What was left of this old beauty is no longer. She's now just a pile of debris. Wrecking ball did her in last week. Ironic that just two blocks away one of the city's biggest eyesores still stands