YAS Architecture

Montgomery’s New Police Facility Taking Shape
By Ed Fanselow, Staff Writer
February 25, 2005

MONTGOMERY — Village officials this week got a sneak peek at Montgomery’s new $6 million police headquarters,
a building they say has succeeded in providing an inviting home for the village’s growing police force.
Scheduled to open early this summer, the new facility is the first large-scale building project undertaken by the village in more than four decades and the first new police facility to be built anywhere in the Fox Valley since the mid ‘90s.

During a tour with architects and construction managers earlier this week, it was hard for Village Board members to hide their proud smiles.
“It’s just amazing how great this looks,” marveled Trustee Denny Lee. “It’s even better than I expected.”
Among the highlights of the tour were the building’s 30-foot tall glass-enclosed lobby, a new 911-dispatch center, a lockup with six two-man cells, and a state-of-the-art indoor firearms range that Lee said is itself almost as big as the entire existing police facility on Route 25.
At nearly 34,000 square feet, the new facility is almost five time[s] bigger than the current building.
“You can’t fully appreciate this facility,” Police Chief Dennis Schmidt said, “until you’ve seen our current space.”
The trustees saluted architect Stephen Yas for creating a building that they say is “warm and welcoming” to the public, not cold and foreboding like many police stations of the past.
“From the beginning, (the Village Board) wanted a building that would dovetail with the idea of community policing,” Yas said. “The whole idea of community policing is to change the public’s perception of law enforcement and to say, in effect, ‘You’re welcome here.’”

MONTGOMERY — Village officials this week got a sneak peek at Montgomery’s new $6 million police headquarters,
a building they say has succeeded in providing an inviting home for the village’s growing police force. Scheduled to open early this summer, the new facility is the first large-scale building project undertaken by the village in more than four decades and the first new police facility to be built anywhere in the Fox Valley since the mid ‘90s.
During a tour with architects and construction managers earlier this week, it was hard for Village Board members to hide their proud smiles. “It’s just amazing how great this looks,” marveled Trustee Denny Lee. “It’s even better than I expected.” Among the highlights of the tour were the building’s 30-foot tall glass-enclosed lobby, a new 911-dispatch center, a lockup with six two-man cells, and a state-of-the-art indoor firearms range that Lee said is itself almost as big as the entire existing police facility on Route 25. At nearly 34,000 square feet, the new facility is almost five time[s] bigger than the current building. “You can’t fully appreciate this facility,” Police Chief Dennis Schmidt said, “until you’ve seen our current space.” The trustees saluted architect Stephen Yas for creating a building that they say is “warm and welcoming” to the public, not cold and foreboding like many police stations of the past. “From the beginning, (the Village Board) wanted a building that would dovetail with the idea of community policing,” Yas said. “The whole idea of community policing is to change the public’s perception of law enforcement and to say, in effect, ‘You’re welcome here.’”