Pinellas County Emergency Responders Building

Project Details

Florida Emergency Shelter/ Command Center Features Tornado-Rated Windows

The modern two-story 80,385 sq. ft. Pinellas County, FL operations building, built at a cost of $26.1 million in 2010, is constructed of reinforced tilt-wall concrete precast wall panels, with a flat concrete composite roof and with structural steel interior. It is a fully-equipped emergency storm shelter, the first new construction project furnished with Winco tornado rated windows.

Located in Clearwater, the sprawling multipurpose structure has achieved LEED GOLD certification by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).

Objective: Window Damage Protection Beyond Hurricane Velocities

Tornado season came in with a vengeance the Spring of 2011 in pans of the southeast and in the Midwestern region known as Tornado Alley. In April more than 300 died in over 600 tornado-velocity storms - the worst month for U.S. tornadoes, smashing the previous record of 267 set in 1974, according to the U.S. Weather Service.

With tornado incidents on the rise, a new generation of heavy commercial aluminum windows and doors offers a higher degree of protection from wind damage. The 164 tornado-rated windows in the Pinellas County Emergency Response and Control Center, engineered and manufactured by Winco Window Company, St. Louis, MO., achieve a once-unobtainable level of protection from extreme velocity storms approaching 200 mph. The windows are modified Series 3350 fixed units. Average window size is 4 ft. by 3 ft. The 1-½-inch IG glazing system consists of green-tint low-e laminated heat-strengthened glass with half inch polycarbonate interior panel.