Canadian law enforcement is set to receive a major boost in training as the designs for the nation’s largest police training centre – the Alberta Public Safety and Law Enforcement Training Centre (APSLETC) – are revealed. The plans show a state of the art large-scale building that will be the first of its kind in all of Canada.
In fact, the building is expected to function as an advanced skills training centre that offers to bring together and streamline North American law enforcement holistically.
The challenges that come with designing a highly functional building such as ASPLETC have not been lost on design team Stantec or its senior principal, Enzo Vincezino.
“Designing a law enforcement training centre of this calibre was both challenging and exciting,” says Vincezino. “We not only met the requirements and budget set out by Alberta Infrastructure, but through the creative use of design and materials we were able to provide many value-added features that will truly make this a world-class facility.”
These features include simulation labs, classrooms, a mock courtroom and processing unit, with a considered focus on indoor-outdoor integration to extend the boundaries of interior learning and practical training, such as shooting ranges; urban village, forest, farm and streetscape scenarios; and high and low-speed test pads.
Bird Design-Build Construction Inc. will work with the design team to deliver the overall structure and its intricate interior built elements in a way that best promotes functionality and state-of-the-art learning.
“We are pleased to be selected as the design-build contractor and look forward to working with Stantec to successfully deliver this interesting project,” says Ian Reid, Bird’s Calgary district manager. “We are currently finalizing the last details with the province and expect to start construction later this summer with completion scheduled for the fall of 2014.”
When delivering on a highly advanced, highly functional and interactive structure such as ASPLETC, integration between design and construction elements need to be seamless.
This building will play an enormously important role in molding the country’s law enforcement and influencing authorities across North America. It is a large task, but something for which the designers and developers are showing a strong acumen.
