The City of Plymouth had outgrown its public safety building, so after studying the existing building, BKV Group chose to incorporate both the public safety department and the city hall into one modern facility. Combining these programmatic elements into the existing city hall unifies the complex and supports the building’s natural setting. The secured squad parking garage is built into the natural bowl-shaped site, reserving additional park area and providing a necessary security separation of police and staff vehicles. The landscape supports this gesture with native plantings and low stone walls, which also elevates the pragmatic nature of a parking facility into a meaningful solution that gracefully integrates itself into the landscape.

Client: city of Plymouth
Type: Law Enforcement, City Hall
Size:  70,000 SF

Community-Inspired Design

Given the introverted nature of the existing building, the addition introduces a contrast of transparency, extending into the landscape through a collection of markings or stitches. The stitch interventions are identified with contrasting materials and their continuous but fragmented implementation. Stitch components include walls of stone, granite boulders unearthed during construction, vertical walls of concrete and steel cladding, native upland prairie plantings, slatted wood roofs, and steel trellis. The new visual and physical promenade, as well as the incorporation into the land of the parking structure, provides a tangible statement about Plymouth’s dedication and commitment to public safety, public service and to the integration of the built and natural environment.