Designing for Security

Answers:

1. The criteria for ensuring public safety divide federal buildings into five categories. Greater security measures are required as the facility's square footage, number of employees, and volume of public access increase. Most federal facilities fall into one of the first four levles, with special-purpose facilities, such as the Pentagon, being classified as level five. Building security committees evaluate each building.

2. a) Perimeter security integrates landscaping, site planning, and parking controls with with visible security measures including CCTV monitoring, lighting with emergency backup, and physical barriers or bollards. b) Entry security looks at the location and design of main entrances, loading docks, mail rooms, utility mains, as well as package screening procedures. Precautions include intrusion-detection systems, upgrading current life-safety standards, and locating mechanical areas and underground systems remotely from entries. c) Interior security addresses design and construction materials and operational strategies to deter property theft and industrial espionage of proprietary or classified information. Street-level retail spaces in government buildings are also carefully evaluated. Site assessments including the hardening of some day-care centers, specific area access of employees/vistors to utilities and control centers, and providing emergency lines to critical systems.
   d) Security planning includes assessing risks and locations during site selection and planning, installation of film on exterior windows, establising design standards for blast resistance and standoff distance.

3. Risk factors include theb symbolic importance of highly visible landmarks; functions considered vital to national interests; the overall impact of a potential attack in terms of death, property damage, and workplace interruptions; and costs associated with repairs and replacement.

4. Parking within the facility should be access-controlled. Surface parking should be controlled with appropriate perimeter barriers; handicap accessibility must be maintained. Magnetometers and X-ray equipment should be considered as integral to entrance lobbies. Lighting in egress areas should have emergency power backup. Emergency power units should not be co-located with primary power units, as they were at the World Trade Center, where a single underground explosion disrupted both power sources.

5. Fully tempered glass and laminated glass. For window assemblies to work properly, the glazing, mullions, and anchors must all be able to resist blast pressures and transfer loads to the adjacent structure.

6. "Hardening" enhances vulnerable portions of a building by localizing blast resistance. Another approach is to attempt to mitigate partial or total building collapse though reinforced-concrete and steel buildings with well-detailed connections and through enhanced exterior glazing. To secure key building systems, route each system separately, rather than using a single, combined duct. Locate main feeds away from potentially vulnerable, publicly accessible locations and locate redundant systems remotely.