Dec. 4, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by Interstate Office Products.

About 18 months before a single piece of furniture was ordered, planning began for a one-of-a-kind campus focused on public safety in Sioux Falls.

“This was such a large-scale project, we started early and worked closely with the city, their architect and the architect’s designer as we helped the city make decisions,” said Marcia Young, interior designer at Interstate Office Products, who worked with co-interior designer Abby Tufvesson on the project.

“It all came together beautifully in the end.”

Interstate Office Products has a long, broad-based relationship with the city of Sioux Falls, assisting with office design, space planning and furnishings for decades.

“Interstate understands the city’s goals when it comes to furniture selection because we have an ongoing relationship,” said Erin Bofenkamp, the city’s project manager for the Public Safety Campus. “They worked with our architect to talk about what was needed in finishes, so it all aligned with the architecture of the building.”

The city’s team brought in representatives from the police and fire departments along with Metro Communications “to go room by room over what we proposed for office furniture, so they could have input on it,” Bofenkamp said.

“I think it shows a lot, bringing people in to ask what will work for you and what you need, and that’s what happens with Interstate. Other furniture throughout the city also is newer. There’s often a sit-to-stand desk, and you can bring people in to fine-tune that desk, or fine-tune your chair, or just go over the specific needs of individuals, and they will always work with you.”

At the Public Safety Campus, there are multiple facilities, but the furnishings largely focused on an administrative building that includes offices, classroom and training space and a structurally reinforced dispatch center known as a PSAP, or public safety answering point, serving Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County.

“It’s a big space, but from a design standpoint, it’s very consistent with its overall look and feel,” Tufvesson said. “The aesthetics are nice, and if anything needs to be reconfigured, all the training rooms coordinate.”

A focal point for the building is a classroom with tiered seating, similar to something you might see in a college setting.

“We worked closely with them on layouts and budgets, making sure we had enough space in the rooms – and the tiered classroom required quite a bit of planning to make sure it fit just right,” Young said.

In other training rooms, there’s modular furniture that’s also designed for comfort because public safety officials might spend hours there in training.

“They’re sitting in this room a long time in some cases, so we wanted to make sure they had very comfortable chairs and adequate space for computers and materials laid out, so they can focus and learn,” Young said.

Interstate also worked with the city to customize glass-top shelving for the fire department, “so they can lay out different training buildings and scenarios under the glass for a huddle or to rehash what they just did on campus or in a building,” Bofenkamp said.

The city’s branding colors of red, blue and yellow are used throughout the building – but with intentionality.

“There are certain areas that are blue that are designed to be more calming, especially for first responders, and other areas like the classrooms are red and meant to be more stimulating,” Bofenkamp said.

The city’s broad goal “is to use high-quality products that make their employees feel valued,” Young said. “Across city government, there is consistent use of height-adjustable desks and highly ergonomic chairs.”

Throughout the building, there’s a mix of individual offices and workstations.

“When it came time for installation, it was one of the best installations we’ve had,” Bofenkamp said. “It just went smoothly. They’re really good at getting to punch-list items, and everything looks great.”

Outside of the administrative building, Interstate also provided furniture in the campus range and maintenance building – “more industrial-type stools for when people are working on weapons or different apparatus of vehicles,” Bofenkamp said.

Another highlight on the new campus is the employee lounge, which is “a really fun space because there’s a mix of lounge and bar-height seating,” Tufvesson said. “It’s also very flexible furniture, so if they have an event, they can push tables out of the way to accommodate all types of uses.”

There’s also a full kitchen – and it has a broader purpose too.

“During the firefighters’ academy, they also teach you how to cook because firefighters eat together on their shifts,” Bofenkamp said. “They’re also really good cooks!”

Because of the customizable approach to training room layouts and furnishings, the spaces already are being used throughout city government.

“Our public works department just had an annual meeting there, and they used the modular furniture to work in groups,” Bofenkamp said. “That’s also really important for our Emergency Operations Center, where you have communications people in one group and traffic in another, working through logistics.”

The overall layout and furnishings “bring a lot of ease and flexibility,” Tufvesson said. “What they’re doing today might not be what they need to be doing tomorrow, so it’s easy to adapt.”

For today, though, the praise for the city’s Public Safety Campus overflowed at its recent grand opening.

“I think people were blown away. It looks amazing,” Bofenkamp said. “Even the parking attendants we had at the event told us that as people were leaving, they were commenting about how incredible it was to see.”

To learn more about how IOP can support your workplace vision, visit i-o-p.com, or call 605-339-0300.