This facility received a Renovations Gold Award in Firehouse's 2020 Station Design Awards. Find the full list of winners here.
The newly renovated Londonderry Fire Central Station is located on Mammoth Road, which is a main thoroughfare in the town of Londonderry. The site is adjacent to town hall, a police station and a public library and across the street from the local high school. The original 8,200-square-foot station was built in 1978 by firefighters and volunteers. The renovations and additions expanded the facility to a total of 23,450 square feet.
The original station served the town well but lacked many features that are required for modern first response teams. Insufficient administrative space, gear storage, training room, sleeping quarters, apparatus bays, contaminant control, gender separation and general code compliance were primary concerns during planning and design.
The decision was made early to salvage and renovate the existing apparatus bay structure while adding new bays and operations/administrative wings to either side. The fire department was required to operate continuously during construction, so the team determined a phased construction approach was necessary.
The first phase of construction included a public, single-level administration wing with main lobby, offices, first-aid room, training room and dispatch suite. Dispatch serves three towns and must operate 24/7, so a seamless integration during and after construction was critical.
The two-story operations wing that’s on the opposite end of the building provides fully accessible support spaces, including a gear room, decontamination rooms, a fitness center, vehicle maintenance, SCBA equipment and mechanical/electrical rooms. The second level includes bunk rooms that have built-in storage, a kitchen, a dining area, a dayroom, single-user locker rooms, report writing and a laundry facility.
The building features a masonry façade with pre-cast accents, hip-style roofs and prominent entry porticos that lend to a classic New England-style architecture and complementing other municipal public buildings that are within the larger site context.
Architect/Firm Name: Kelly Davis AIA/Port One Architects Inc.
