• Istanbul 2
  • Istanbul 3
  • Istanbul 4
  • Istanbul 2
  • Istanbul 3
  • Istanbul 4

The Customer’s Challenge

Managing the infrastructure and services of an ancient European metropolis presently exceeding 15 million population had become difficult: 90 city agencies and 43 associated, smaller, local authorities were scattered across the city, desperately trying to deliver public services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  Both long distances between locations and mismatched IT systems regularly caused coordination problems and communication delays. When faced with an emergency, the city staff struggled to respond appropriately and with immediacy.  

Our Solution

Drawing on our proven ECC Planning and Design Process, SNA’s 3D Creative Services Team developed a physical design for one centralized site and crafted a 3D model of the building sized to seat over 1000 people on two floor levels. The facility design featured a 200-seat control and communications center with large screen technology. The design guaranteed redundant and emergency power as well as redundant data centers and communications radio rooms. Furthermore, communications and traffic flow models were evaluated and optimized. Expecting VIP visits and press conferences at the future enterprise command and control center site, our team designed a foyer featuring an accent wall depicting the rich history of the city and boasting generously-sized award displays.

Project Benefits for Our Customer

SNA’s physical design was the beginning of a larger architectural project. Our report included a plethora of topics such as facility hardening for security, and well before the COVID-19 epidemic, we advocated strongly for generous spacing between operator workstations for the benefit of social distancing.

Our recommendations for the logical design included considerations for both improving the existing systems by implementing industry standards, and planning the customer's systems beyond the next iteration.

  1. A comprehensive recommendations tomb of 420 pages, encompassing seven chapters as distinct areas of expertise and covering the topics of Inception Report (157 pages), Need Assessment (45 pages), High-Level Design-Architecture (60 pages), General Consolidation and Virtualization Blueprint and Roadmap Report (75 pages), Economic Impact Analysis (24 pages), Enumeration of Potential US Suppliers (12 pages), Environmental Impact Study (35 pages), plus several pages of charts, diagrams, and tables.
  2. Matching executive presentation, including its slide deck.
  3. Physical design specifications based on latest human research results, ready for hand-over to a local building architect firm.
  4. Interdisciplinary input: Engineering expertise far exceeding that of the average architectural firm, coupled with relevant recent research findings.
  5. Videos (“fly-throughs”) modeling each space from entry to conference rooms to control center space.
  6. Executable Suggestions Matrix for short, medium, and long-term timeframes.
  7. Increased and pro-active risk awareness stemming from the initial choice of ECC site location, and resulting in improved risk assessments and risk mitigation.

At the time of project completion, several of the risk factors we considered may have appeared far-fetched, and our recommendations may have seemed futuristic.  However, since the time of publication, this city has had to deal with some of those significant risks, including riots and political upheaval. Last but not least, the global COVID-19 pandemic proved the wisdom of our design recommendations toward disease control and prevention in the workplace.