(Lawrenceville, Ga., Feb. 16, 2010) - Today Gwinnett officials held a ribbon cutting to open the new Police Headquarters Annex, at 800 Hi-Hope Rd. in Lawrenceville. The annex is home to the County's E-911 communications center, emergency operations center and backup data center. The project came in with a lower price tag and two months ahead of schedule.

The one-story, 45,000-square-foot Police Annex and E-911 Center construction began in September 2008 and was completed in November 2009. Competitive market conditions permitted the County to reduce the original total project budget from $20 million to $18.7 million. 

"The police annex will provide Gwinnett County with a state-of-the-art facility that will serve the County well for the many years to come," said Commission Chairman Charles Bannister. "The relocation of the 911 center and its personnel from police headquarters will make room for more law enforcement operations to occupy the extra space."

The building and associated parking will accommodate 180 employees and was designed to meet standards for hardened facilities using guidelines from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA 361). The pre-cast concrete was a natural envelope material for accommodating facility hardening required by FEMA 361.

While the project was not required to have LEED certification, the design team, led by architect Michael Katzin of HOK (Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, Inc.), used a sustainable design approach to provide an environmentally-responsible facility. Some of the sustainable design approaches for this project included minimized site disturbance and light pollution, water-efficient landscaping, low VOC materials, low-flow plumbing fixtures and digital HVAC controls.

The general contractor for the project was Manhattan Construction Co. Funding for the project was provided by the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) and police capital project funds.