In Quarters: Plainview, TX, Fire Station 2
This facility received the Satellite Notable award in the 2024 Firehouse Station Design Awards. Find the full list of winners here.
Fire Station 2 serves as a landmark to the north entrance of Plainview while providing the fire department with a combination administration/fire station. Looking toward the future, the facility is designed such that all bay “support” spaces are shifted to near the living areas, making it so that a future third full apparatus bay could be added without any interruption of service.
The parcel is bound on four sides by streets and an alleyway. With the desire for the most efficient apparatus exit and return, the design rotates the apparatus bay wing behind the perpendicularly oriented public face, which includes a paver monument area.
From the entry, the facility divides into two front wings—administration and fire station—with an open-concept kitchen/dining/dayroom area that’s supported by an adjacent covered outdoor patio. The simple, three-wing layout of Fire Station 2 coordinates with a cost-effective preengineered metal building structure that accommodates both sloped roofs and parapeted low-slope roofs. The front parapet and design embrace the aesthetic of a heritage fire station to acknowledge the deep and long history of the town of Plainview and of the Plainview Fire Department.
The fitness room was a priority for the department. To keep it away from quiet office or sleeping areas, it’s placed prominently above the support gear wash and gear storage rooms, where it can share the high-roof structure of the apparatus bays, including natural daylight that enters through an arch-shaped window that’s visible from the front façade. The enlarged exercise area allows all crew members to work out together.
The largely rock landscape of the site serves as a water-conscious example to the public in the desert of West Texas, while the brick, light stone and bright red metal panels combine to both tie in with surrounding brick structures and stand out as a proud public monument.
Architect: Martinez Architects