| 1 Police Plaza | |
|---|---|
NYPD Police Headquarters, known as "One Police Plaza" |
|
| Alternative names | 1PP, the Puzzle Palace |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Brutalist |
| Location | New York City, USA |
| Current tenants | New York City Police Department |
| Construction started | 1968 |
| Completed | 1973 |
| Inaugurated | 1979 |
| Renovated | 1984 |
| Cost | $58 million |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 13 (above ground) |
| Design and construction | |
| Owner | New York City |
| Main contractor | Castagna & Sons |
| Architecture firm | Gruzen & Partners |
1 Police Plaza (1PP) is the headquarters of the New York City Police Department (NYPD). 1 Police Plaza is located on Park Row in downtown Manhattan near City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge. Its block borders Park Row, Pearl Street, and Police Plaza. The Headquarters for the New York City Police Department was previously located at 240 Centre Street approximately one mile North of 1 Police Plaza.
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Like the Boston City Hall, 1 Police Plaza is rectangular in plan and is an inverted pyramid in elevation. It is a 13-level, horizontally-oriented brutalist building designed by Gruzen and Partners in 1973. A 22,000-square-foot (2,000 m2) expansion project is slated to be complete by 2011.
Located on the eighth floor of 1 Police Plaza is the Real Time Crime Center, an anti-crime computer network which is essentially a large search engine and data warehouse operated by detectives to assist officers in the field with their investigations.
The Major Case Squad and the Technical Assistance Response Unit are also located at One Police Plaza.
Park Row, historically a four-lane artery linking the financial district to Chinatown, has been closed[1] to civilian traffic since 2001; the NYPD asserts that it's necessary to protect its headquarters from a truck bomb attack. Chinatown residents are increasingly frustrated at the disruption caused by the closure of the vital thoroughfare, especially nearby residents. People who live nearby argue that the police department has placed a choke hold on an entire neighborhood and that if One Police Plaza is such an obvious terrorist target, perhaps it should be moved from a residential area.[2] Members of the Civic Center Residents Coalition have been fighting the security perimeter around the building for years.
Paul J. Browne, the NYPDs chief spokesman, said police headquarters will not be moving despite the numerous complaints from residents. He said the department had tried to alleviate the impact of the security measures by stopping officers from parking in nearby public spaces and reopening a stairway that skirts the headquarters south side and leads down to street level near the Brooklyn Bridge. The department also plans to redesign its guard booths and security barriers to make them more attractive, and is involved in efforts to convert two lanes of Park Row into a pedestrian green-way. “The Police Department has worked hard to be responsive to the community while maintaining the requisite level of security for this sensitive location,” he said.[1]
A 22,000-square-foot (2,000 m2) expansion of One Police Plaza is slated for completion in 2011. The project will not add any new floors to the building or any new employees to police headquarters, so the building’s impact will be minimal. The renovated building will have new computers and equipment. Angry Lower Manhattan residents held a rally on August 27, 2008 near One Police Plaza to protest the addition. Tenants of three neighboring co-ops filed a lawsuit to force the NYPD to undergo environmental and land use reviews.[3]
One Police Plaza was also a made for TV movie which aired in 1986. It was a crime drama that about a veteran policeman's investigation of a woman's murder which led him to the discovery of corruption in high places.[4]
The Opening of each season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, ends with an image of the main characters walking outside the One Police Plaza building.
Inside One Police Plaza, a room on the second floor affectionately called "The Shack" serves as the police bureau office for local press outlets. Its tenants include the Associated Press, the Daily News, New York Post, The New York Times, Newsday, Staten Island Advance, El Diario La Prensa, NY1 News, and WINS Radio. Its police counterpart is on the 13th floor, the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information (DCPI).
1PP is also known to insiders as "the Puzzle Palace", although this term can also refer to the National Security Agency.
Inside 1PP is the "Fourteenth Floor", the NYPD's Commissioner's office.
Popular authors that feature the NYPD and NYC are: Joseph Wambaugh, William J. Caunitz, Dan Mahoney, John Mackie, Edward Dee and Gabriel Cohen, etc.
The NYPD Property Clerk Office is located in Room 208.