Ocean City
Ocean City, MD

The new Ocean City Public Safety Complex consolidates numerous municipal services, previously scattered throughout the town, into one centrally located facility. The new facility reflects the town's desire to create a new town center and civic identity. The program provides 55,000-gsf of space for Police, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Emergency Operations Center (EOC), District Court, Clerk of the Court and Juvenile Services.

Ocean City is a resort town located on an island stretching nearly nine miles long and from two to five blocks wide. During the summer months, the weekend population often exceeds 300,000, making it the second largest city in Maryland and taxing the police and EMS services. In addition, the location along the Atlantic Ocean and its barrier island configuration make the town susceptible to natural disasters such as hurricanes.

The project site is located three blocks north of the primary vehicle bridge connected to the mainland and is visible from that vantage point. The rear of the site previously housed other municipal services such as the water works and sanitation department.

The facility design reflects the two distinct program elements, police/public safety and the courts, and their relationship to each other. The orientation of the Public Safety building responds to the site and also establishes a wall and gateway to the "municipal complex." The District Court facility, which is a state function, is shifted away from the Public Safety axis to further suggest its separate purpose and is clad in white building materials reminiscent of traditional limestone and marble civic facilities. At the entrance to the Public Safety department and at the juncture of the two facilities, a tower provides an identifying landmark element which symbolically marks the town center and public plaza and functionally serves as an observation tower to monitor natural disasters.

The Public Safety Building is a concrete frame with a flat roof and the District Court Building is steel with a curved metal roof. Both buildings exteriors are ground face block in several different colors which evoke memories of the surf, sand and resort community. All critical functions are located on the second floor and in the event of a natural disaster, the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) will be the communications, operations and control center for the entire Delmarva peninsula.

Completion: 1994
Size: 55,000 GSF
Cost: $8,500,000