Twin Cities Police Headquarters
Larkspur / Corte Madera, Calif.

Construction has started on the 17,500-sf Twin Cities Police Headquarters in Larkspur / Corte Madera, Calif. We are providing structural design and construction administration services to Glass Architects. The two-story wood and concrete masonry unit (CMU) building will house multiple offices, locker rooms, an evidence room and a temporary cell holding facility composed of a six-inch concrete roof slab and CMU walls. Design challenges included: providing load continuity along varying diaphragm heights, particularly between the low roof and the second floor; distribution of lateral forces at the second-floor diaphragm composed of a mix of rigid concrete slab and flexible plywood sheathing; and the associated complexity in distributing shear loads along a lateral force resisting line with wall elements of varying stiffness due to the combination of CMU and wood shear walls. The estimated completion date for the project is January 2012.