Transportation

On March 21st, 2011, DART inaugurated its state-of-the-art Police Headquarters in the adaptively reused Monroe Shops building in South Dallas. The former maintenance building of the Texas Interurban Railway was built in 1914 during the golden age local passenger rail and remained in continuous service until 1948 when Interurban closed its doors. After many decades of neglect and abandonment, in 2009 Phillips/May Corporation was selected by DART to transform and rehabilitate the historic building into a sustainable, cutting-edge workspace designed to house its entire police force and facilities. Located directly adjacent to the DART Blue Line Illinois station, the building’s transformation also serves as a motivator for additional TOD or Transit Oriented Development that often coincides with arrival of DART and its reinvestment in the communities that its serves.

The ambitious project included the selective demolition of existing interior floors, construction of temporary exterior wall supports, excavation and installation of an underground concrete utility tunnel, and placement of new concrete piers to support additional floor slabs. The insertion of the second floor into the existing building envelope created the design opportunity to provide the visual impression of a modern building encased within the historic load-bearing masonry walls and high bay space of the Monroe Shops building. In addition, new structural steel was added to allow for the inclusion of elevators, a mechanical pit, and truss supports.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in 2007, this project was subject to Texas Historic Commission and State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) review. The Project also adhered to the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) requirements for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification.

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