Pennsylvania State Police Barracks

The State Police Barracks Building at the Mon-Valley Expressway is situated on a bluff that overlooks the Turnpike, positioned to be seen by vehicles traveling both East and West. The Police Barracks was designed as a companion building to the Maintenance Facility Complex (designed by JSA), which is about two miles east of the Barrack’s site. This building compliments the Maintenance Complex’s formal vocabulary while contrasting in the building’s materials coloration.

The building’s design was based loosely on the design of the USS Monitor (item 1), one of the first ironclad warships in U.S. Naval history. Like the Monitor, the formal organization of the building is based upon a central drum (rotunda), which rises from the geometry of the body of the basic building. The building is essentially windowless (security purposes) except for the rotunda, which is expressed predominately by translucent panels, which harvest natural daylight for interior lighting. The rotunda space houses all of the operational spaces such as dispatch, highway surveillance, communications, and public access. The rest of the building is organized into two wings that flank the rotunda. The western wing houses mechanical and infrastructure functions while the eastern wing provides the Barracks function for the Police. An outbuilding accompanies the Barracks building to the East on the site and houses telecommunications equipment.

Designed to meet LEED silver standards, the building harvests natural daylight, is constructed of regional materials, is set into a non-irrigated landscape, and seeks to maximize comfort levels of it’s occupants.