The new six-story Sarasota Police Headquarters Facility is Florida’s first LEED® Certified facility, and one of only 33 LEED Certified police facilities in the country.

Designed to be an open and inviting visual icon, the structure includes a large vertical entry plaza facing south. This façade was a deliberate response to the harsh Florida sun, and also allows the front of the building to face historic Payne Park. The exterior also includes a secondary screen wall to shade the building, and to provide frames through which to view the park, creating a unique and urban exterior backdrop for park goers. Perforated screening from CENTRIA played a key role in the project.

One of this project’s main goals was to be both sustainable and able to withstand environmental pressures, while still integrating seamlessly into Sarasota’s existing downtown urban fabric. In addition to its impressive LEED Certification, the Sarasota Police Headquarters is designed to withstand Category-5 hurricane forces, meeting both Florida Product Approval and the strict Notice of Acceptance (NOA) requirements. These requirements, established in Miami-Dade County, have become the highest standard for architects looking to ensure that their buildings can withstand hurricane-force winds. The building includes critical infrastructure redundancies that ensure its ability to maintain operations 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during and after significant, and possibly destructive, events.

Architects had two specific goals when designing the Sarasota Police Headquarters: sustainability and survivability. Building owners were also focused on value, and hoped to keep the building schedule on track, despite the unpredictable Florida weather. They also chose materials that would significantly decrease long-term maintenance costs. For these reasons, metal was the building product choice for the Sarasota Police Headquarters.

CENTRIA’s EcoScreen® Perforated Screenwall is a unique fabrication that provides 10-40 percent open area for the effect of a translucent screen to control light and air movement, as well to provide safety and security. EcoScreen allowed architects to blend this functional facility with the surrounding community, while creating an urban, yet light, backdrop for those visiting historic Payne Park, which borders the south façade of the Sarasota Police Headquarters. Another advantage of EcoScreen is the shade it provides the building and its occupants, while granting frames to view the park.

CENTRIA’s Formawall® Dimension Series® is a wall system that provides both advanced thermal efficiency and moisture control in a single panelized component. While traditional multi-component wall systems require up to seven separate components, including a rainscreen, an air barrier, exterior gypsum sheathing, fiberglass insulation and a vapor barrier, this product is manufactured as one component, creating a wall that provides superior thermal efficiency and moisture control. Most importantly for this project, Formawall Dimension Series adheres to Dade County’s strict Notice of Acceptance (NOA) requirements. These requirements, established in Miami-Dade County, have become the highest standard for architects looking to ensure that their buildings can withstand hurricane-force winds. To meet these standards, Formawall Dimension Series underwent and passed extensive testing which included getting blasted with a 2 x 4 shot from a cannon and extensive negative and positive cycling, which attests to the product’s excellent negative wind load properties.

However, both EcoScreen and Formawall Dimension Series did adhere to Florida Product Approval, a state wide credibility system that ensures a higher standard of practice for product evaluation and consistency, which was a requirement not only mandated by the architect, but by the state of Florida.

These two products also reflect CENTRIA’s commitment to sustainability, and contributed to building’s LEED Certification, an impressive feat in Florida’s hot and humid climate. Florida Product Approval is a basic code mandate for the entire state, including Sarasota. The architect, Architects Design Group (ADG) mandated the higher Dade County NOA criteria for the building envelope because of the type of structure they were designing. Dade County Approval is only code mandated in Dade and Broward Counties. These two counties are identified in the Florida Building Code as the "High Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ).

The project architect was Architects Design Group of Winter Park, FL; and the CENTRIA products dealer/installer was Cladding Systems of Tampa, FL. The 200,000 sq. ft. facility was completed in July 2010.

CENTRIA products used on this project included:

• EcoScreen® BR5-36. Square Feet: 8,419; Color: Stainless Steel; Perforation: 3/8 x 9/16 and Staggered 40%; Gauge: 20.

• Formawall® Dimension Series® 2” Vertical with 1/8” Reveal. Square Feet: 1,462; Color: Charcoal Gray; Finish: Smooth; Coating: Fluorofinish; Gauge 22/22.