New Police Academy Rises in Queens

The steel is rising as huge cranes lift beams for the classroom buildings at the new thirty-five acre Police Academy campus in College Point. The $656 million Phase 1 project - which is designed to achieve LEED Silver certification - is scheduled for completion in December 2013. Total price tag for the project will exceed $1 billion.

With the largest municipal police force in the United States, the NYPD has as many as 4,000 recruits annually, 36,000 police officers and 15,500 civilian employees. 

The New York City Police Department needs a place to train recruits and provide ongoing programs to its civilian staff and active officers. In 2013, “New York’s Finest” will have the state-of-the-art facility it deserves.

Phase 1 construction includes the glass-covered, main academic building - which will include classrooms as well as tactical areas featuring an office and a subway car for training - and the physical training facility, which will be connected to it by a second-floor bridge. Phase 1 will also include the construction of gyms, a pool, a field house, a running track and a dining area, as well as parking for up to 900 cars.

It is estimated that up to 2,000 cadets will be able to train at the new academy during their 
six-month cycles. 
 
Although the project began last year, not much was visible until recently because the area, a former landfill and later the city’s largest car impound lot, required a lot of clearing and site preparation. It was also necessary to install a methane gas venting system. Because of the area’s high water table, more than 6,000 piles had to be driven. 

Phase 2 work, which will begin immediately after the earlier construction is completed, will incorporate NYPD facilities now located across the city, will feature indoor shooting ranges, a tactical village, a police museum, additional parking for 300 cars and a housing area for visiting officers from out of the area.

The project, designed by Perkins + Will Architects, is targeting a LEED Silver certification from the United States Green Building Council. Green features of the facility include daylight harvesting, green roofs atop the buildings, storm water harvesting and reuse and redevelopment of an existing tidal stream located within the site.
  
The present academy, located in Manhattan, is over 40 years old, and was built for a department half the size of the current one. The new state-of-the-art, one million square foot campus will be bounded by College Point Boulevard, Ulmer Street and 28th and 31st avenues.

A joint venture between Turner Construction Co. and STV Inc. is providing construction management/build services for Phase 1 under a $656 million contract. STV/Turner’s services include campus development, technical problem-solving, financial management, contract administration and project controls.

The project is both on time and on budget. An on-site office houses about 50 employees from Turner Construction/STV and the NYC Department of Design and Construction. Presently, there are 180 construction workers on the job, but soon, more than 800 will be working at the site. The total cost for the project is expected to come in at between $1 and $1.5 billion.