MEDIA
Jul 30, 2024
Current Fire Station Design Trends - Podcast
Current Fire Station Design Trends - Podcast
Sep 14, 2020
The Fire Station: Selecting the Site - Part 1 - Video
The Fire Station: Selecting the Site - Part 1 - Video
Sep 13, 2020
The Fire Station: Selecting the Site - Part 2 - Video
The Fire Station: Selecting the Site - Part 2 - Video
A "Shelf-Help" Guide to Station Storage Needs
Have you ever heard anyone say, “We just have too much storage space?” I haven’t either. Whether at home, at the office, or at the station, it seems that our national pastime is collecting “stuff.” Then comes the dilemma of where to keep it all. Unlike much of what we store at our homes, most of what is stored at the station actually has some usefulness and needs to be accessible.
Sharing Your New Station May Save You Money
While the overall economy has experienced a lack-luster performance since the Great Recession of 2008-2011, the construction industry is booming. If you are in construction, the benefits of the increased activity are bountiful. If you are planning to build…not so much.
Pitfalls to Avoid During Station Construction
There are people in the world that learn from their mistakes and experiences, and there are those who learn from others mistakes and experiences. Those in the latter category tend to have a longer, less stressful life. If your future includes a new or renovated station project, it makes sense to learn how others have encountered challenges in the process so that you can attempt to avoid the same problems.
Sustainable Stations Without the Plaque
Departments and municipalities across the nation are addressing the issue of sustainable design. Most are still developing goals and guidelines for their new or renovated facilities. Based on their experiences of incorporating sustainable design on recent projects, some departments and municipalities are re-evaluating the requirements that they have put in place over the past decade. Before we consider an example of one reevaluated approach, let’s discuss what sustainable design has come to mean in the design and construction industry.
Prototype Station Design
Webster’s Dictionary defines prototype as, “an original model after which other similar things are patterned.” Over the almost five decades of designing stations our firm has worked for many clients that have benefited from utilizing the “prototype station design.”
How to tell Your Department’s story of
‘We Will Never Forget’
Memorials, Museums and History
We will never forget. A simple statement conveying an active and perpetual choice to remember those lost, has become an anthem in the public safety community following the events of September 11, 2001. On September 11, 2014, the City of Danville Virginia dedicated a new fire station headquarters rich in symbolism and displays of their local department, the site and the community.
Legacy Planning Looking Ahead to the Next Project
The design and construction of any Fire Station project is a very involved process that will require a significant investment of time and energy from multiple people in your department. This investment of time and energy will result in specific, valuable experience for those personnel. From the initial pre-planning to the selection of the architect, and all the way to the completion of construction, there will be many options and considerations for every decision made.
Your Designer’s Experience Matters… and will save YOU
Time, Money, and Headaches!
If your organization is planning to renovate or build a new Fire/Rescue station, is there really any benefit to using an architect who has significant Fire/Rescue station experience? After all, any quality architect should be able to design a station, right? Is specialization really necessary? Well, let’s look at it another way. Would you go to a foot specialist for a heart condition? Both doctors were trained in medical school. Surely the podiatrist can figure out a coronary bypass, right?
Minimizing Cancer Risks Parts I & II
Serving your community as a firefighter has always been recognized as a dangerous, yet rewarding endeavor. Most of the dangers have been fairly easy to identify. Line of duty injuries or deaths have resulted from several sources including structure fires, automobile accidents, heart attacks, and high blood pressure.
Planning the Station Site for Expansion
It is a safe bet that when most departments are building a new station they never consider the possibility that one day they will need to expand the facility. The thought seems to be, “If we’re spending this much on a new station, surely we’re building all we’ll ever need”.
Taking Advantage of Good Prices in a Bad Economy
As I write this article, the world is deep into the COVID19, Corona Virus pandemic. The loss of life and health has been tragic. Additionally, this crisis has led to many economic problems that have rarely been witnessed in the US. The ramifications of this event have impacted the finances of each individual and every organization’s finances.
Strange Bedfellows
In the forty-plus years that our firm has spent designing stations, we’ve learned that there are several operations-based design concepts that are fairly universal regarding how departments want their stations to function. How bunking occurs is not one of those universal concepts! It seems that every department has their own unique set of goals and policies (written and unwritten), which have led to a multitude of different approaches for providing sleeping accommodations for the emergency worker.
“Building” the Building Committee: Who Should be Tapped?
Nearly three thousand years ago, Solomon penned, “In the multitude of counselors there is safety”. But many years later, someone else wrote, “A camel is a race horse designed by committee.” For those planning a fire or rescue station project, the reality lies somewhere between these two opinions.
