Police Scotland HQ, Clyde Gateway, Dalmarnock

Acoustic design at Police Scotland HQ, Dalmarnock

Client: Turner & Townsend appointed by Police Scotland

Architect: Cooper Cromar architects

Project Value: £24 million

Project team: Russell Macdonald, Russell Macdonald

The new £24m office block in Glasgow’s east end, houses more than 1,000 police officers and civilian staff and stands on a brownfield site overlooking the Clyde in Dalmarnock, close to the Commonwealth games athletes’ village.

The five-storey Riverside East site services Police Scotland operations across the west of Scotland and prior to the creation of a national force in 2013, Dalmarnock had been earmarked as the new headquarters for the former Strathclyde Police.  The new site effectively replaces the old Strathclyde HQ at Pitt Street.

RMP acoustic consultants were involved in the design stages of the project to ensure that suitable internal environments are provided to achieve BREEAM.

With open plan office layouts, it is particularly important to control the level of reverberation time and masking noise to ensure a high level of sound insulation good speech intelligibility.  This was achieved for meeting rooms, conference room, interview rooms and cellular offices.

RMP also undertook measurements of the road traffic and other external noise at various associated positions to provide adequate specifications of the façade glazing to meet the BREEAM requirements.  A BS 4142 assessment was undertaken to allow for a set maximum noise level for the building services on the roof.