This facility was a Career 1 notable selection in Firehouse's 2018 Station Design Awards. Find the full list of winners here.
Fire Station #1 is a new two-story, 22,259-square-foot facility located on S. Main St. just across the street from its previous home. The station serves as a gateway to southeast Gainesville.
The station was built with future growth in mind, but currently houses 12 firefighters and five emergency response apparatus. The health and safety of the firefighters was an integral part of the design process, with attention to safety, controlling contamination, enhancing firefighter training and encouraging physical fitness. The station features a state-of-the-art paging system with individual dorm paging units to reduce alarm fatigue, has an extractor to clean bunker gear, and uses a Safe Air Vehicle Exhaust Filtration System to extract the diesel exhaust from the bays.
Other station features include a three-story training tower, three fire poles, three double-length apparatus bays, two single-length bays, a receiving lobby, an EMS patient treatment area, a community training room, a physical agility room, a kitchen, a briefing room, offices and decontamination room.
In order to keep our firefighters safe and operational during Florida’s windy weather, the station is designed with concrete block and steel and reinforced aluminum frame windows with impact-resistant glass. The station was built to a LEED 4.0 Silver Standard.
Site features include a three-story attached training tower, a separate supply and equipment and trailer storage facility and visitor parking with electric vehicle charging stations and a full load natural gas generator.
The station represents a continuous legacy of service that dates back to the 1800s. The former Station #1 was built in 1965 and it replaced the city’s first brick station built in 1903, near the former federal building. The dedication stone from the historic structure was recovered several years ago and is now on display in the fire station’s lobby.
Architect/Firm Name: Gary Kranston, Project Manager/Architect of Record, Bentley Architects + Engineers, Inc.
