By Joe Creason

The City Council Building Committee held a meeting regarding progress for the long-planned public safety project set to be constructed at 90 Washington Street. The City acquired the property on the corner of Washington Street and New Washington St in order to create an improved operations center for Somerville Police and Fire Departments.

“Technical working groups have resumed schematic design for the site and so far we have a meeting with each group,” said Capital Projects Sr. Manager and Committee Chair Melissa Woods.

In meetings with the various work teams, the Committee says it discussed a variety of technically complex issues including which HVAC systems were going to be examined for a life cycle analysis and the potential for solar energy generation on the roof. In the plan design, New Washington St is being reoriented through the site to create a four-way intersection.

“This proof of concept really determines that the public safety building would work here,” said Project Lead from Context Architecture Jeff Shaw.

Shaw presented a sequence of improvements and design renovations which Context Architecture had been developing over the previous weeks. “Through this progression, you can see where the design process starts to push and pull between what’s best for the site and building in an urban condition, and what’s best for the program and operation of the building,” Shaw said.

Four iterations, building design A, B, C, and D were presented to the Committee. According to Shaw, design efforts were concentrated on fitting parking and the necessary public safety services on the first floor. Accommodations must be made for certain police and fire services which are required at ground level. 

“I think it’s no secret that space is at a premium in Somerville,” Shaw said. “In an urban environment, you have to look at what’s going to work in a vertical configuration. We’ve talked a lot about it in programming but now this is where the rubber meets the road.”

Committee Chair Melissa Woods said she is currently in communication with the police and fire departments with regards to an hour-by-hour utilization of vehicles on-site, with functionality around policing being the most complex. “The priority is that the garage houses city assets. That’s police and fire vehicles and we want the garage at a high utilization rate all the time,” Woods said.

Due to the building being located in a dense urban environment and the high cost of land in the area, the Committee says it does not want to build expensive parking that goes underutilized. It is unlikely that public parking space will be created as the priority of the garage is the protection of city assets.

“The building takes up a lot of space and exists in this valley of other buildings. What are the design opportunities to make this more welcoming to the public?” asked Principal analyst for the Mayor’s Office Cortni Desir.

Shaw said that he and the team at Context Architecture believe the building’s shorter height can be an asset. They hope for key additions, with creative facade elements and design that makes interactions with the surrounding neighborhood possible. “We are still really trying to figure out how to give back public space, especially towards the entrance,” Shaw said.

The process of creating and implementing this new public safety building has been occurring admits the evolving conversation around community policing and the role of municipal police departments. Somerville’s FY22 budget allocates substantial resources for the recently created Office of Racial and Social Justice.

“We’re just about to start moving forward with action items for reimagining policing now that budget season is over, it is more clear what we are able to do,” said Director of Racial and Social Justice Denise Molina Capers.

Capers said she needs to hire key staff before the complex issue of policing can be addressed.