Dive Brief:
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Although the New York City Department of Design and Construction had already spent $1 million on the plans for a Bronx police station, it held a competition for a new design and chose a Bjarke Ingels model instead, The Real Deal reported.
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The New York Public Arts Commission approved the original design in 2008, but the global financial crisis halted construction, according to The Real Deal. The original contract expired after three years, and the city paid nearly $1 million for the design left unused.
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An NYPD representative said that when construction plans restarted recently, the department had wanted to use the initial Karlsberger Architecture-Alexander Gorlin design to make the process easier, but the Design and Construction department said that plan was no longer feasible.
Dive Insight:
Officials said the original plan did not meet new standards for sustainability or improve the environment for interaction between the community and police.
Construction on the project is expected to start in early 2017 and be completed in late 2019. They have not yet hired a general contractor for the 40th Precinct station.
"Starchitect" Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has been grabbing headlines recently. Earlier this month, BIG unveiled designs for a 1,005-foot-tall, 65-story glass skyscraper called "The Spiral" for Manhattan’s mixed-use Hudson Yards development.
The company was also hired by the Washington Redskins to design the NFL team's new stadium, and was behind Google’s greenhouse-style headquarters in California.
The police department's focus on sustainability for its new station aligns with an ongoing move toward more sustainable structures. Earlier this month, the American Institute of Architects reported that sustainability and renewable energy will play key roles in nonresidential construction trends over the next decade.