How to make a concrete bunker livable

With security and sustainability becoming critical factors in nonresidential construction, design sometimes takes a back seat on projects.

Case in point: New York City’s second Public Safety Answering Center, known as PSAC II, which opened last June in the Bronx. The 450,000-sf facility, sitting on 8.75 acres along the Hutchinson River and Pelham Parkways, supplements PSAC I, located at the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn. The newer facility is set up to handle more than 11 million emergency 911 calls annually to the city’s police and fire departments.