Mr. Suggs

Security & Safety

How Design, Operations, and Technology Work to Add Security to Hotels Effectively

By Jim Suggs, Project Manager, RTKL

Co-authored by Todd Lundgren, AIA, LEED AP, Vice President, RTKL

Good news for hotels: they need not sacrifice hospitality to security. Whether a property is established or in the early stages of planning, its design can achieve both attractive and functional security features. Such features can facilitate the operations and technology of a well trained, coordinated security team at the same time that they provide guests with pleasant, inviting visuals.

Threat and Vulnerability Assessment

checkpoint security... Secure design starts with an assessment of threats and vulnerabilities. Threats are what could happen. Vulnerabilities are weaknesses in the facility being protected. The level of threat and degree of vulnerability, once established, represent the benchmarks against which to gauge appropriate security responses. These responses must be designed to discourage or thwart attacks, as well as to limit damage and injuries if the worst does happen. The more threats and vulnerabilities that exist at a particular location, the more security must be in place.

One of the first factors which designers must take into account is geography. An independent hotel in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will not face the same threats as a signature hotel in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, London, Paris, Moscow or virtually any other international city. Cities in areas of relative political instability or upheaval would hold even more dangers.

A second important factor is the hotel's expected patronage. Even a minor hotel known for catering to Westerners could, in some areas of the world, become a target. Meanwhile, almost any first class hotel could find itself playing host to prominent Western figures, successful business people, government officials, high-ranking military personnel or other targets attractive to terrorists.

Once major threats are identified, designers must evaluate the property's vulnerabilities. This is best accomplished by imagining the building in the context of three different potential threat levels: low, medium and high. What vulnerabilities exist for each threat level, and how might the building’s design change to overcome them?

Building in Security

Security professionals describe securing a facility as creating concentric circles of security. Each circle throws up a blockade against an attacker, with the goal of making it so difficult and dangerous to get in that the would-be attacker finally decides not to try. Design, technology and operations are all part of such a strategy.

Design

New hotel design can incorporate security benefits at virtually no cost premium. This makes secure design akin to sustainable design. As long as threats and vulnerabilities are considered at the beginning and worked into the design, security need not have a significant influence on budget or aesthetics.

On the other hand, retrofitting an old (or new) hotel can be more expensive. Add-on security relies more on technology and operations than design. Worse, layering security technology and people on top of a completed hotel will necessarily compromise the look and the welcoming sensibility that a hotel must provide to be successful.

With that in mind, designers should consider simple elements involved with perimeters, public and high-occupancy spaces, and landscaping. For instance, designing a more secure perimeter might be as simple as limiting the number of access points to the hotel, then providing staff with clear line-of-sight entrance surveillance (i.e. front desk).

Where space permits, limiting passenger vehicles from approaching close to the building via bollards, planters, dense in-ground planting, collapsible sidewalks or other aesthetically pleasing (or at worst neutral) elements would be appropriate in a higher threat environment.

High-occupancy areas (restaurants, ballrooms, etc) or VIP suites can be placed in a way that makes them safer. For example, they would not be located above parking structures or loading docks where it can be difficult, costly or impractical to ensure all vehicles are benign.

Furthermore, because lobbies and other public spaces are meant to invite patrons inside, they are by nature difficult to secure in a way that provides a desirable guest experience. Yet the likelihood of an incident there is higher than in other spaces. As a result, these spaces might be semi-detached from the building's main body. In the event of an incident, laminated glass that doesn’t break into dangerous shards can help to minimize injury. And guest room towers can be set back on building podiums, rather than positioned directly adjacent to traffic on the street.

Daylight and natural views are clearly desirable in spaces like lounges, restaurants and pre-function spaces. However, the often copious amounts of glazing that makes those spaces desirable is certainly not a barrier to either blast or ballistics. So, where space permits, orienting the glazing towards broad secured lawns, planting areas or fountains can be effective. In a dense urban area, facing these spaces toward a sunny and attractive interior courtyard might be more achievable.

Technology

Technology can create additional barriers. In a high-threat environment, X-ray machines, metal detectors and the hotel security officers operating them may be located inside the main entrances, where everyone must stop and submit to a search.

In high- or medium-threat environments, video surveillance cameras can watch for anyone managing to get through the other security levels. Although their use in low-threat environments can make guests uneasy, generally, people have gotten used to cameras. They see them everywhere, signaling that a security system (and personnel to monitor it) is on guard.

In facilities lacking security personnel, new intelligent camera technology can be programmed to watch for areas that contain abandoned packages, a person or people running or fighting, people where no one should be at certain hours of the day, and other scenarios that communicate trouble. The software sounds an alarm when the camera detects any of these situations.

Building control systems also offer security opportunities. Event rooms in the hotel can be equipped with motion-sensor light switches that automatically turn on the lights when someone enters. The system can be set up to communicate with security if a room's lights do go on unexpectedly.

People

The last and most important part of hotel security is its staff. No design or technology will work as effectively without well vetted, well trained personnel – not just patrolling security officers in uniforms or plainclothes, but also the rest of the staff, from desk staff to kitchen workers to chambermaids. The reason: inside threats, which are of equal concern to those from outside.

Terrorists will notice secure design concepts as well as security technologies and procedures in use at the hotel. They want to succeed, and what looks like effective security design and operating procedures will likely provide reasons to look elsewhere. Thus making some security design, technology and people visible can help to dissuade terrorists from targeting a particular hotel.

This article was co-authored by Todd Lundgren, AIA, LEED AP. Mr. Lundgren is a Vice President with RTKL and leader of the firm’s global hospitality sector. Building on three decades of experience Todd is a recognized expert in the planning and design of hospitality driven environments and developments. Todd is an industry force having delivered multiple iconic projects that blend hotel, retail, residential, and other uses to create viable, sustainable mixed-use communities. His extensive worldwide hotel experience from Asia, to Europe and the Middle East, Latin America and North America, covers the full spectrum of four-star and five-star brands and includes convention hotels, boutique resorts, extensive property repositioning, renovations and master planning. He can be reached in RTKL’s Dallas office at 214-468-7532 or by email at tlundgren@rtkl.com.

Jim Suggs, AIA, LEED AP . Jim Suggs’s experience as a project manager at RTKL has been focused on large scale hospitality and mixed-use projects. He is an RTKL and industry expert in the planning and design of hotels and hotel-driven environments and developments. With nearly three decades of experience as an architect and as a designer, Jim has amassed extensive experience in architectural design, interior design, historic preservation and master planning for private and public, commercial and institutional clients. Mr. Suggs can be contacted at 214-468-7698 or jsuggs@RTKL.com Extended Bio...

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