This new fire station for the City of Fresno has an area of 13,500 square feet and includes three drive-through apparatus bays, sleeping quarters for nine personnel, including separate Battalion Chief quarters, kitchen, dining, day room, offices, fitness, turnout storage and shop area. Site improvements include secured personnel parking, fuel dispensing, emergency generator, and a public parking area. The team worked closely with the Fire Department to ensure that the Departments goal of achieving an efficient floor plan to minimize the time it takes to get to the apparatus bay and into the apparatus. By providing multiple plan layout options for comparative purposes the Fire Department was able to make a selection that provided them the most efficient response time. The final design optimizes operational efficiency, limits hot zone contamination, and provides flexibility for future growth.

COAR also collaborated closely with the City of Fresno to develop an exterior design that fit well with the surrounding area, which was under development. The design team attended Community Design Review workshops to ensure the fire station design complied with the conditions of guidelines. The final material selections were complementary to the surrounding context, and were high durability and low maintenance. The team used a combination of photo-realistic renderings and a virtual walk-through of the facility to clearly communicate to the community and City what was being proposed.

The fire station project implemented a variety of design and construction strategies to achieve the most sustainable and energy efficient building possible. Calculating the implications of the Life Cycle Cost of the components is essential in determining accurate cost for not only initial installations, but also energy use and replacement costs throughout the life of the building. The total cost of ownership was deliberated when designing the site and building. Our approach was to minimize energy consumption through specific programming requirements on the site.