Category: Public Safety
SCHRADERGROUP Welcomes Our New Director of Public Safety Client Services!
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) is delighted to welcome Larry Bickford to the firm. Larry joins SG as a Public Safety, Mission Critical, and Emergency Operations consultant.
As a consultant in the construction and design industry, Larry has served as the Project Executive for government facilities as diverse as correctional, judicial, law enforcement, administrative, 9-1-1, and emergency operations center (EOC) facilities. As former County Manager, Larry provides executive level consulting in governmental policy, finance, and capital project procurement and delivery. He served as a principal defining public projects, developing financing strategies, selecting of consultants and has served as the owner’s representative.
Larry is a Penn State Alumnus with 24 years of experience leading county government operations and consulting to municipal, county, regional and state governments in the procurement, design and construction of public safety/justice facilities.
We are excited to have Larry join our team and look forward to his expertise on our future Public Safety projects.
SCHRADERGROUP Attends Ribbon Cutting of New Mission Critical Facility Completed in Outer Banks
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) was honored to attend the ribbon cutting for the new Dare-Tyrrell-Hyde Counties Regional Emergency Communications Center located in Manteo, Dare County, North Carolina. The new 18,200 SF facility consolidates the emergency communications operations of Dare, Tyrrell and Hyde Counties into one Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) and additionally creates an Emergency Operations Center for Dare County.
“It was a great pleasure to be at the ribbon cutting ceremony,” said Project Architect Dan D’Amico, AIA, LEED AP. “It was exciting to be a part of the design and construction of the first facility in North Carolina to consolidate emergency communications for three counties into one state-of-the-art facility. To see the end result and experience the pride and satisfaction of the new facility users was a great reward.”
The ribbon cutting was recently featured in The Virginia-Pilot. In the path of frequent mid-Atlantic hurricanes and tropical storms, the facility is designed to withstand 150 mph winds, and additionally is sited to be above the 100-year flood plain. For more information about the project, please visit our website.
SCHRADERGROUP Attends Ribbon Cutting of New Pennsylvania State Emergency Operations Center
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) team members were proud to attend the ribbon cutting of the 145,000 SF State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) recently completed by SG in a joint venture with AECOM. Presenters and ribbon cutters included Lt. Governor Michael Stack; Honorable Curt Topper of the Pennsylvania Department of General Services; Honorable Richard D. Flinn, Jr. Director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA); Jeffrey Thomas, Executive Deputy Director, PEMA; and the Honorable Timothy Solobay, State Fire Commissioner.
SCHRADERGROUP Included in Engineering News-Record Mid-Atlantic Top Design Firms 2016
Engineering News-Record Mid-Atlantic Magazine includes SCHRADERGROUP architecture in its list of Top Design Firms 2016. The ENR Mid-Atlantic Top Design Firms list ranks the largest design firms, both publicly and privately held, based on design-specific annual revenue. SG ranked at #72 this year, placed in the category of General Building. We are pleased to have risen in the rankings from our place last year at #76. Our ranking features our largest project to break ground in 2015, the Phoenixvville Early Learning Center and Elementary School.
SCHRADERGROUP Featured in BD+C 40th Annual Giants 300 Report
We’re excited to announce that Building Design + Construction Magazine’s 40th Annual Giants 300 Report featured SCHRADERGROUP architecture among their top 100 architecture firms. The annual report ranks top AEC firms in commercial construction, by revenue. Ranked #97 overall, SG jumped to #12 amongst the Top Data Center AEC firms. This ranking is a reflection of the quantity of public mission critical facility designed by the firm. We are honored to be recognized, and will continue to keep pace with the leaders in our industry.
Topping-off Ceremony Conducted for SCHRADERGROUP Project
A topping-off ceremony marking the placement of the final steel beam for the new Dare and Tyrrell County Regional Emergency Communication Center and Dare County Emergency Operation Center was conducted last week at the project site in Manteo, North Carolina. Designed by SCHRADEGROUP (SG) with support from the Norfolk-based firm of Lyall Design Architects, the 18,200 SF facility will provide space for services and departments that include a Regional 9-1-1 Communication Center, an Emergency Operations Center, County Emergency Management Agency, County Fire Marshal, County Emergency Medical Services, and a County Joint Information Center.
SCHRADERGROUP Celebrates 12 Years
This spring marks 12 years since SCHRADERGROUP (SG) opened our doors in a revitalized industrial building in Manayunk, Pennsylvania. In that time, we expanded our original space, then moved into a larger space, and recently expanded and renovated the larger space. We’ve grown to 21 employees and opened branch offices in Lancaster, Baltimore and Wilmington. We continue to increase our presence nationally through our public safety/mission critical work, and have completed K-12 and higher education projects throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware. We’ve faced some challenging economic times, internal ‘growing pains’ that come with expansion, and the day-to-day trials inherent to running a service-oriented business. But we’ve also won awards for our work, watched staff grow professionally and personally, and learned quite a bit about how to run a better business. At the end of the day or, in this case, at our twelfth year, we pause to reflect on what makes us keep at it. And we think about the joyous students moving into a brand new or much-improved, renovated school. Or the law enforcement and mission critical employees who move into a safe, ergonomic, state-of-the-art facility and know that they will be able to provide the best service possible to their communities. In these moments, we are thankful and honored to be a part of making good things happen with great clients who place their trust in our team. And in these moments, we look forward to the years ahead and to the exciting projects and fantastic clients to come. Congratulations, SG, thanks to all of the clients we’ve served, and thanks also to the trusted partners who serve alongside us!
SCHRADERGROUP Principal Published in STRUCTURE Magazine
An article about a recently completed SCHRADERGROUP (SG) project, the restoration of the County courthouse dome in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was featured in the May 2016 issue of STRUCTURE Magazine. Authored by firm principal, Tom Forsberg, PE, the article describes the process undertaken to repair water damage affecting the structural framework of the dome and the subsequent restoration of the roof and crowning statue of Justitia, Lady Justice.
“The project certainly came with challenges,” says Tom. “But it was incredibly fulfilling to make a contribution towards preserving a piece of Lancaster City’s iconic skyline.”
To read the article and learn about this interesting project, visit STRUCTURE Magazine or download the article here.
SCHRADERGROUP Principal Co-presents at AIA Academy of Architecture for Justice Fall Conference
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) managing principal David Schrader, AIA, LEED AP, co-presented at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Academy of Architecture for Justice (AAJ) 2015 fall conference held in Miami, Florida. The session, entitled “The Next Generation of Emergency Communication and Operation Centers: Consolidating Services,” discussed the critical nature of the consolidated functions of facilities at municipal, parish, county and state levels throughout the country.
Continued weather trends as well as concerns for domestic and national threats have heightened the status of emergency facilities and increased the number of services provided by these organizations. With an increased focus on emergency preparedness, the required technical and communication connectivity of the various supported agencies is challenging prior approaches to facility design. Further, increased need to staff, maintain and support these functions has brought the facilities closer to the urban fabric. The program presented at the AIA AAJ conference demonstrated recent design innovations developed to meet changing concerns through the examination of three recently built consolidated emergency response facilities.
Learning objectives for the session included:
- Understanding the challenges of the multiple client agencies housed within the next generation of facility.
- Discussing the code applications and recommendations utilized to develop contemporary emergency response centers.
- Developing a sense of the hardening requirements and system redundancies required of a facility of this type.
- Understanding the forces driving the consolidation of these services with other municipal functions.
One of the projects used as a case study for the presentation, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) State Emergency Operations Center, is designed by SG and currently nearing completion of construction. The project was featured in Justice Facilities Review 2014, published by the American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Justice. For more information about the PEMA State Emergency Operations Center, please visit our website.
The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) State Emergency Operations Center, nearing completion
SCHRADERGROUP Exhibits at APCO 2014
SCHRADERGROUP (SG) is pleased to be exhibiting at APCO 2014, the 80th Annual Conference and Expo for the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, August 3-6 in New Orleans, Louisiana. APCO is an international organization committed to providing complete public safety communications expertise, professional development, technical assistance, advocacy, and outreach to benefit their members and the public.
SCHRADERGROUP proudly exhibits at APCO 2014
Firm principal Harry Pettoni noted that the conference is well-attended and includes public safety professionals from all around the world. SG, exhibiting for the fifth time at APCO, brings over two decades of public safety programming, planning and design experience, and is excited to have the opportunity to share our expertise with the public safety professional community.
At SG, the familiarity of process and the knowledge base that comes from having designed numerous facilities throughout the United States provides us with an excellent starting point for public safety projects and allows us to devote more time to developing a creative design solution that not only guarantees a secure facility, but also provides an efficient and pleasing environment for employees, visitors, and the community as a whole. Firm principal David Schrader is nationally-recognized for the planning and design of public safety and mission critical facilities, and is a frequent presenter and speaker on topics relevant to this particular project type. For additional information about public safety and mission critical projects completed by SG, please visit our website.