Facility Design Considerations

If your facility is in a building, your security assessment must include all facets of the building. You need to consider the vulnerabilities under the building’s foundations: tunnels, subways, or public utilities such as natural gas lines. You need to consider the vulnerabilities in the building’s exterior construction, including the foundation and openings in or through the foundation, walls and openings through them, and the roof, including openings through the roof. Consider the vulnerabilities of certain construction materials, such as glass.

Exterior construction is designed for structural support, an attractive appearance, and protection from the environment. It is also designed to provide some level of security.

Interior construction is designed to provide comfortable and functional work or living spaces, optical and acoustical privacy, and some level of security.

Because every facet of the building has some influence on the level and quality of security, the person responsible for physical security must carefully assess all of the building’s structural and support elements for their effect on facility security. General contractors and members of the construction trades use the materials and install the systems for which they are contracted. Specifying the materials and the systems that achieve the facility’s and the Forest Service’s security objectives is the responsibility of the Forest Service’s security representative, not of the general contractor or builder.