The Town of Andrews, SC, currently houses its town administration, police station, emergency services, and fire station in two buildings on a block bounded by West Ashland Street to the north, North Farr Avenue to the west, North Morgan Avenue to the east, and West Oakland Street to the South. These existing structures have exceeded their anticipated life cycles, are obsolete for accommodating necessary functions, and would be cost prohibitive to retrofit to current code and use standards.

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Consequently, GMK Associates was retained by the Town to determine the feasibility of designing and constructing new structures on the same block for a “municipal complex” that will replace the existing buildings and provide new space for the fire department, police department, and town administration functions (the emergency services function is to be relocated to a separate facility and is not part of this project).

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Under the scope, GMK developed a space program to determine all spatial needs and adjacencies. Additionally, single line schematic floor plans were development to determine a preliminary arrangement of the program. The firm further developed a phasing plan to accommodate demolition of existing buildings, relocation of personnel and equipment, and continuous operation of all departments during construction activities. And finally, preliminary conceptual renderings were prepared for proposed
new structure.

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The original space program called for an approximately 6,329-sf town administration building, an approximately 5,388-sf fire station, and an approximately 4,590-sf police station. The total cost of the building program (including demolition of the three structures) was estimated to be between $4.5 and $4.9 million.

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In 2019, through an open and competitive solicitation process, the Town awarded GMK the design-build construction of the municipal/public safety complex project. This project has entailed refining the original space programming based on modified requirements and budget constraints. The new complex is to include one new building that combines the Town Hall, police department, and fire department functions.