Bjarke Ingels Group's Bronx police precinct building moves forward

Nearly a year after plans were revealed for Bjarke Ingels Group’s design for the NYPD’s 40th Police Precinct, the project is finally moving forward. The Danish starchitect’s firm, along with the City’s Department of Design and Construction, has now filed plans for the project, offering a more thorough glimpse at what the new precinct will entail.

The structure itself will rise only 60 feet (over three floors), but will pack quite a bit into that space. A cellar level will have a records and storage area, changing rooms, and the entrance to a courtyard, which is due to be used for training exercises (and will have a climbing wall).

The first floor will hold the lobby, processing areas, and—in a first for a NYPD precinct—a community meeting room, which BIG says is intended to “encourage[] civic engagement with the precinct.” (As the New York Times notes in its extensive reporting on the precinct, “trust between the community and the police has declined,” so—in theory, anyway—a designated meeting space could help ameliorate that.) The second and third floors, meanwhile, will have offices, conference rooms, storage areas, and a staff lounge, among other spaces.

As YIMBY, which first reported the news, notes, the Bronx’s 40th precinct is one of the city’s toughest districts, with “the sharpest crime rise in the city this year,” according to the Times. The city is spending as much as $50 million on the BIG project, which is designed to look like a stack of bricks (harking back to the design of early police stations, somehow).

It’s also due to have a green roof, and will be equipped with other eco-friendly elements that will help it achieve LEED silver certification.

• City Files Plans For $50 Million South Bronx Police Station Designed By Bjarke Ingels [YIMBY]
• Bjarke Ingels's Next NYC Project Is A $50M Bronx Police Station [Curbed]
• Rift Between Officers and Residents as Killings Persist in South Bronx [NYT]