Construction has started on the Florida University Public Safety Building which is now taking the place of the original WRUF Radio station in the University of Florida(UF)
This 50,000 sf Florida University Public Safety Building facility was designed by SchenkelShultz Architecture, with Ajax Building Company handling the construction. The building design brings together five separate business units into one centralized location including administrative offices and community meeting rooms which will be complemented by a multi-purpose space, interview spaces, public records storage, locker rooms, a vehicle port and various other offices.
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A partner at SchenkelShultz, Ekta Desai said that the company was very proud of the project. She also said, “In working with UF and testing options within our studio, we were able to create a practical, inviting, high-performance space that will accommodate multiple Public Safety departments. By design, the new building will define a campus landmark as a gateway and enhance communication and reaction time to better serve the University of Florida community.”
The project scope also includes the renovation of the existing Centrex Building where the University’s Emergency Management staff and emergency operations dispatch center is located. The EOC offices will be moved to the 3rd floor of the new three story building with cutting-edge technology and centralized access to the rest of the department.
When the public safety complex is completed, it will become a central location for the University of Florida Police Department (UFPD) that will make the university’s police forces more visible and accessible to the surrounding campus community and enable them to respond faster to a wider variety of public safety concerns on the campus in a more timely and efficient manner.
In addition to the construction of the UFPD building, the UF police has also estimated $30 million to cover the campus safety project. The University of Florida’s vice president of business affairs, Curtis Reynolds explained that the $30 million safety plan would cover the installation of 1,700 surveillance cameras around campus, new lighting, license plate readers at 20 campus entry points, with improved key-card access technology to fortify building-access controls.
