Owner: City of Seattle
Architect: Howard Struve, Rice Fergus Miller
Civil Engineer: Warner Engineering
President/CEO: Mark Lewinski
Project Manager: Shane Tapert
Superintendent: Dave Martinez
Project Engineer: Patti Knutson
Estimator: Arne Nielson
ABC members involved in the project:
Kibble & Prentice, A USI Company
Propel Insurance
The original City of Seattle Fire Station #35 was built in phases starting in 1920 when horses pulled fire fighting equipment. The project consists of a two-story, 11,532-square-foot building constructed on a zero-setback lot. This created many challenges for the construction team, as there was no room for storage, lay down, equipment or even a job trailer.
Kirtley-Cole Associates replaced the Seattle icon, and the transformation fit in with the Crown Hill neighborhood’s vision for redevelopment. Rice Fergus Miller began design on the project following their selection in December 2006.
Although the city of Seattle only required the project be constructed to LEED Silver standards, Kirtley-Cole was able to go above and beyond the project requirements and achieve LEED Gold certification through an impressive design, intense quality control during construction, and diligence on the part of all subcontractors and team members throughout construction.
Some of the sustainable characteristics include 100% covered parking to reduce heat island effect, brownfield development, a 30-percent increase in air ventilation and low VOC materials.
The station operates with impressive energy efficiency because of the HVAC system. The system uses individual controls in the sleep rooms and living areas, as well as a design that also cost-effectively heats the apparatus bay and working spaces. The design and construction of the building uses as much natural lighting as possible to achieve the delicate balance between low lighting costs and maintaining energy efficiency.
To conserve space, Kirtley-Cole constructed the apparatus bay with finishes to allow for indoor truck washing. It also has a fully contained indoor decontamination center and incorporates several multi-use centers to allow for storage of all of the equipment used by the firefighters.
The urban lot also proved challenging for demolition of the existing structure, which stood 20-feet taller than the adjacent building. Kirtley-Cole systematically demolished the existing structure, pulling the walls in as the process evolved. The soil condition on the site was found to be unacceptable for reuse as structural subgrade, but a concrete treatment reinforced it. This not only saved the major expense of exporting the existing material and then importing new, but also time in the construction schedule. The solution was also more environmentally friendly.