Orange County NC Waterstone Fire & EMS Station

Orange Rural Fire Depart­ment contracted with Stewart Cooper Newell Architects to design a two department sta­tion for the Orange Rural Fire Department and Orange Coun­ty EMS. The project presented some challenges including a steep site that limited the usable area and designing two separate departments and services within one building on a limited site.

In order to address the site limitations and respond with an option that utilized these challenges to enhance the project’s design, the front façade of the building houses the overhead bay doors so they are closest to the street to allow for quick access for re­sponding vehicles to the street while the public entrance to the building is located at the rear of the building closest to the facility’s parking. In order to provide two separate departments with separate services in one building, the apparatus bays are located in the center of the building and each department is located to the right and left of the apparatus bays. The separate entrances at the rear entry facade are located on each side of the returning appara­tus bays.

The entrances are clearly defined to designate the entry to each department but have a cohesive look to provide the building with a unified aesthetic including the maintaining the town’s historical char­acter. Traditional red brick, precast concrete decorative veneer features and arched overhead bay door opening were used to respond to the historical elements of the town. Polished and textured ar­chitectural CMU veneer with matte black windows, cornices and downspouts were used to respond to the modern commer­cial buildings located in the Waterstone area.