This facility received a Shared Facilities Gold Award in Firehouse's 2020 Station Design Awards. Find the full list of winners here.
Vancouver’s Fire Hall No. 5 is a community-centered facility that’s in the heart of Vancouver’s Killarney neighborhood. It not only affords the community excellent response and suppression coverage, but the building provides 31 social housing units, which are managed by YWCA. This co-location development is on the cutting edge of urban design and maximizes the potential for density by integrating two much-needed, complementary facilities on a single site. This approach comes with its own challenges, such as incorporating the added access and circulation around the site for the different user groups. At 15,600-square-foot the fire station site was exceptionally small, which demanded particular care to be taken to ensure that the separation of user groups was maintained.
The new fire station replaces the existing structure built in the late 1950s and became outdated because of changes in industry standards and seismic design regulations. The building design incorporates the latest in envelope technologies as well as post-disaster standards that are necessitated by city code requirements and Vancouver’s location within one of the highest seismic zones in North America. These standards applied to both the concrete fire station structure and the wood-framed, four-story social housing that sits above of it.
The value and availability of land is a critical concern for municipalities as they grapple with providing infrastructure and housing. These issues have required local authorities to become creative and look for synergies in land use where possible. In the case of Fire Hall No. 5, the opportunity to provide housing on the same site meant building up as opposed to out because of the limited site area. This is particularly relevant in Vancouver, because it’s ranked as one of the least affordable cities in the world, after Hong Kong and followed by Melbourne, London and New York.
Architect/Firm Name: Johnston Davidson Architecture + Planning Inc.
