Schmidt Consulting Group, Inc. provided research to be incorporated into the Design/Build Request for Proposal for the 1st Air Force Command Headquarters project at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. This project was broken into three phases. Phase I and II have already been constructed and resulted in the Killey Center for Homeland Operations. The Killey Center, located on L.K. Arnold Way, is dedicated to Maj. Gen. Philip Killey and Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold whose efforts as CONR-1AF commanders empowered the organization to achieve its current status – providing air sovereignty for homeland defense and support to civil authorities, on a daily basis. A dedication ceremony was held on March 13th, 2009 with both retired general officers in attendance.

This complex, when complete, will consolidate the functions of 10 individual directorates, located throughout the base, and will ultimately house over 370 personnel. The first two buildings are occupied by the Personnel & Manpower, Intelligence, Operations, Plans & Programs and Communications Directorates. The senior leadership is also co-located in a second floor command suite, surrounded by the Commander’s Personal and Special staff. The separate buildings are connected by conditioned walkways, purposefully designed to enhance access control and isolate classified information storage and activities. The entire facility is designed to operate as a secure facility, including SCIF and open storage. Support systems include intrusion detection and access control systems.

Construction for Phase III of the project, which will include the Logistics, Installations, Lessons Learned and Emergency Preparedness Directorates, has just started. SCG, alongside Gulf Coast Architectural Group and STOA Architects, provided Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Fire Protection, Communications, and Structural bridging documents. The project spanned a total of 100,000 square feet and has an overall estimated construction value of $28 million.

As a Headquarters facility, amenities include a TV studio for video teleconferencing and training missions, shared kitchen and break room facilities, consolidated printing and copying areas and nine conference rooms of varying sizes and capabilities. The facility’s computer systems use blade computer technology which allows a secure and centralized unit instead of personal computers at every station. This contributes to its space and energy-saving natures. Another energy saving feature is the lighting occupancy sensors.

The Killey Center was presented with the 2005 U.S. Air Force Concept Design Award.