PALO ALTO, Calif.—Palo Alto has officially opened its long-awaited Public Safety Building at 250 Sherman Avenue, a project nearly a decade in the making. At 137,500 square feet, the $123.5 million facility represents one of the city’s largest civic investments in recent history.
Designed by DLR Group and built by Devcon Construction, the building consolidates critical services under one roof, including the Police Department headquarters, Fire Administration, 911 Dispatch Center, and Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
The new facility replaces the outdated Forest Avenue station, which opened in 1970 and no longer met seismic or accessibility standards. With its LEED Gold certification target, the building reflects Palo Alto’s commitment to sustainability while ensuring resilience in emergencies. The structure is engineered to operate independently during natural disasters, a vital feature for a city that values preparedness.
Unique features include two subterranean floors of secure staff and police parking, a site utility yard, a public plaza, and a 135-foot communications tower. Inside, conference rooms honor fallen officers, while soaring ceilings and artistic touches create a welcoming environment. To offset the parking lot displaced by the new building, the project also delivered a 636-stall California Avenue Parking Garage, ensuring accessibility for residents and visitors.
The building’s 24/7 operations underscore its role as a hub of safety and coordination. By housing police, fire, and emergency communications together, Palo Alto gains faster response times and improved collaboration during crises. The facility’s resilience and sustainability features make it a model for modern public safety infrastructure in the Bay Area.
Yet what truly sets this project apart is the community engagement process that shaped it. From the earliest design stages, the city and architects sought input from numerous departments, neighborhood groups, and design review boards. This inclusive approach ensured that operational needs were balanced with sensitivity to the surrounding neighborhood. Residents voiced concerns about scale, traffic, and aesthetics, and those perspectives were woven into the final design. The result is not just a high-performance building, but one that reflects Palo Alto’s values of collegiality and civic pride.
The ribbon-cutting in November 2025 marked more than the completion of a building. It celebrated a collaborative effort between city leaders, public safety professionals, and the community itself. In that sense, the Public Safety Building stands as both a symbol of resilience and a testament to collective vision, designed to serve and protect Palo Alto for generations to come.
