This facility received the Career 2 Notable award in the 2025 Firehouse Station Design Awards. Find the full list of winners here. 

The scope of work that produced Fire Station 1 is unique in that it combines a traditional fire station with a Morris Fire District Museum and has the opportunity for future expansion. The museum holds a steamer engine, a 1954 ladder truck and two circa-1800 hose reels that help to tell the story of the district over its history. The Station Design Awards judges appreciated this component and its integration with social spaces.

The program for the facility was to have a three-bay apparatus area with space for a future storage mezzanine, residential space for five firefighters plus a company officer, a larger community meeting room and space for the museum to house the department’s 157 years of artifacts and antique equipment. The layout needed to provide efficient access to the apparatus bay from the bunkrooms and the dayroom/kitchen. Additionally, because of the growing staffing of female firefighters, the toilet/shower facilities needed to be nongendered and allow for adequate privacy and comfort.

The facility was designed with the health and welfare of the firefighters in mind. Careful placement of a decontamination area and shower minimizes the firefighters’ exposure to harmful aspects of their jobs.

The primary challenge was the limited size of the site. This required careful crafting of the layout of the building to allow for public access to the museum, proper access to the apparatus bay, and balancing the critical need to limit chute time and the arrangement of spaces for daylight, comfort and aesthetics.

Architect: Studio GC