A Neighborhood Beacon

by Jonathan McGaha | December 2, 2012 12:00 am

Located at the base of historic Mt. Baker Boulevard in Seattle, Fire Station 30 serves as an anchor to the community. Its civic scale marks the transition between the commercial activity of Rainier Avenue and the primarily residential Mt. Baker neighborhood. Completed in April 2011, the 9,120-square-foot, two-story fire station was designed by Seattle-based Schacht Aslani Architects.

 

Accommodating both the work regimen and human comfort needs of the firefighters, the station’s compact plan and simple building form optimizes its operational efficiency. The station’s rooms are set up to support a place for firefighters to work, relax, rebound and enjoy the camaraderie of station life.

 

“The design explores program relationships that drive a compact footprint and create clarity to circulation within the building,” says Eric Aman, AIA, LEED AP, project manager at Schacht Aslani Architects. “By stacking the living quarters or ‘house side’ this allows the building to meet the requirements of a very tight site while enhancing the overall scale. Ultimately this balance provides a strong civic presence to the neighborhood.”

 

Wrapped in a folded plane of copper skin, the station’s program is revealed through a series of pulls and reliefs in this fabric. To create civic identity and a clear public presence, the station’s opaque apparatus bay doors within the transparent curtainwall from Norcross, Ga.-based Kawneer Co. Inc., are juxtaposed with the fritted station signage. Its highly transparent street façade allows passer-bys to view the activity within, while at night, the illuminated building becomes a beacon of the department’s presence within and its commitment to the community.

 

“This allows the transparent street face to reveal the program elements to the public in a very open and intentional fashion,” explains Aman. “On the south and west sides, the fabric is pulled or ripped away to create openings and windows that provide daylight, and views into and from select rooms. These tears in the fabric reinforce the story to the public on how the building functions.”

 

The copper siding extends outward on the west side to create an overhang to shade the living quarters, while on the north and south elevations, a combination of exterior overhang and interior light shelves are used to shade and bounce light.

 

Fire Station 30 features 2,025 square feet of Bristol, Conn.-based Morin Corp.’s 16-ounce, C-29-7/8-inch horizontal corrugated copper panels and 2,875 square feet of select seam narrow batten standing seam copper panels from Fontana, Calif.-based AEP Span. The soffits and fascia are made up of 1,068 square feet of Northclad AL painted aluminum panels from Northshore Sheet Metal Inc., Everett, Wash., with a Fluropon Classic II Medium Bronze coating from Artisan Finishing Systems Inc., Maysville, Wash.

 

While more traditional materials were explored, due to its location in a liquefaction zone of poor soils, the project required a lighter-skinned structure that was placed atop an elevated structural slab supported by an auger-cast pile system. Copper also provides a contextual tie-in with the adjacent Franklin High School, Aman says.

 

The LEED Gold certified station features a geothermal heat pump system that provides energy-efficient heating and cooling, while materials were selected based on their sustainability in terms of content, cost and maintenance requirements, says Aman. Additionally, the roof collects rainwater and directs it to a bioswale on the site’s west side.

 

Fire Station 30, Seattle

Awards: 2012 Copper Development Association Copper in Architecture Award and 2011 Seattle Design Commission Award for Design Excellence

Photo credit: Mike Jensen

Owner: City of Seattle

Architect: Schacht Aslani Architects[1], Seattle

General contractor: Synergy Construction Inc.[2], Woodinville, Wash.

Glazing contractor: Pacific Northwest Contractors Inc.[3], Lakewood, Wash.

Metal wall panel fabricator/installer: Northshore Sheet Metal Inc.[4], Everett, Wash.

Metal wall panels: AEP Span, Fontana, Calif., www.aepspan.com[5] and Morin Corp., a

Kingspan Group Company, Bristol, Conn., www.morincorp.com[6]

Coating: Artisan Finishing Systems Inc., Maysville, Wash., www.artisanfinishingsystems.com[7]

Curtainwall: Kawneer Co. Inc., Norcross, Ga., www.kawneer.com[8]

Skylights: Sunoptics Prismatic Skylights, Sacramento, Calif., www.sunoptics.com[9]

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/a-neighborhood-beacon/

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