21st Century Security and CPTED, 2nd Edition

599

25

CPTED Considerations

for Office Buildings

The renovation, addition, or new construction of ofce buildings may require the security profes-

sional and owner to collaborate with the design professional in new and challenging ways (Atlas,

1991a,b, 1999a,b,c, 2004, 2005, 2006; BOMA; Building Security Council; Demkin, 2004; Nadel,

2004; San Luis, 1973; Witherspoon, 2002). The security professional may be an employee of the

business responsible for many sectors of security and safety within that business. The architect or

design professional will need many aspects of information from the owner/client and security pro-

fessional to develop the architectural program (see Figure 25.1). The person who can provide criti-

cal information to the architect on security is typically the security director. If no security director

exists, then a trained security professional should be hired to provide assistance.

Even though most of the private sector corporate world provides only the minimal amount of secu-

rity required for common area spaces in ofce buildings (parking and garage controls, lobby guard,

intermittent access control, spotty CCTV), it has traditionally been the responsibility of the tenants to

protect their own assets. What many developers fail to understand is what market value having great

security can bring, even though there are costs associated with these extra features. The single largest

tenant in the United States is the federal government. The federal government currently operates 3.2

billion sq. ft a year in different structures, with approximately 610 million sq. ft of ofce space. The

U.S. Government leases approximately 380 million sq. ft, of which 195 million sq. ft is ofce space.

What does this mean to the developer and architect? All federal-owned and leased space must comply

with the GSA Security Standards as discussed in earlier chapters. The federal government adopted

the ISC Security Standards in nal form in October 2005, and it applies to all federally owned or

leased properties. All new construction and leases must now comply with the security standards, and

leases cannot be renewed unless the standards are met. Whether the space being rented is for a post

ofce, social security ofce, or ATF, INS, or DHS, the space and adjoining common area spaces must

be surveyed for security and have the appropriate corresponding security features for the assessed risk

level. Leased spaces might be required to have building setbacks for blast protection, window protec-

tion, magnetometers and secured lobbies, security guards, identication stations, parking control,

mail screening, dedicated HVAC systems, CCTV, and access control capabilities. Therefore, if there

is any intention to lease or rent space to a government agency in the building, the marketability of that

space will hinge on having basic security features as part of the structure or added on.

CONTENTS

Asset: People ..................................................................................................................................600

Asset: Information .........................................................................................................................601

Asset: Property ...............................................................................................................................605

Additional Security Tips for Designing Ofces and Ofce Buildings ..........................................605

Location of the Security Ofce and Security Equipment .............................................................. 613

Not in the Basement, Please! .................................................................................................... 613

Summary ........................................................................................................................................ 620

References ...................................................................................................................................... 621

600 21st Century Security and CPTED

In order to provide the information in a format that the architect can work with effectively, the

security professional should identify the corporate assets vital to protect. The three most common

assets to businesses are:

People

Information

Property

ASSET: PEOPLE

The resource of people is the rst and most valuable asset to be protected and elaborated on for

developing security criteria for the architect. With any of the three assets, the critical questions in

a needs assessment are:

Who are the users? (Visitors, staff, service crew, sales?)

What can the users do in the building? (Tasks, recreation, work?)

Why are the particular users there? (Ofcial business, guests?)

When do the users get there and leave? (Time, shift, patterns?)

Where can users go in the building? (Horizontal, vertical?)

How can the users get there? (Access methods, circulation?)

The security professional will need to be clear on the implications of each of the answers to these

questions (Table 25.1). It is recommended that a task summary be prepared to give to the architect.

An example of the end product might be as shown in the table.

It might be helpful to develop a scenario for asking the six key questions in the same fashion to

a vice president of a company through to the janitorial cleaning service. The security professional

will then determine the security implications and design implications.

FIGURE 25.1 Skyline of Chicago and the downtown core of ofce buildings.