This facility received the Career 1 Notable award in the 2025 Firehouse Station Design Awards. Find the full list of winners here. 

For more than 250 years, the town of Northbridge fought fires without a formal fire station to call its own. The Northbridge Fire Department (NFD) originally functioned as a private unit of the town’s major employer to protect its textile factory. With the closure of the factory, the department was left to serve the town out of crumbling mill buildings.

The buildings were too small to house modern fire apparatus, and unhealthy station conditions created a poor work environment for first responders. Northbridge’s first official fire station restores and revitalizes the NFD with a safe and contemporary facility that merges modern station design with the deep history of the mill town.

A glowing sign hovers over the apparatus bay, the first design element that the public sees. The five double-deep bays provide the capacity to station as many as 10 fire and EMS vehicles. A four-story tower acts as hose storage and a training tower.

The southwestern portion serves as office space for municipal clerks and managers. Behind the station, an outbuilding provides shelter for as many as five ancillary vehicles.

In the event of a disaster, the facility can transition quickly into an Emergency Operations Center. 

Pathfinding tools were incorporated into the design of the facility to help to guide firefighters through the building, a facet of the project that the Station Design Awards judges appreciated.

The facility’s shared driveway concept prevents daily traffic from impeding fire operations and limites risk to pedestrians and motorists. Historical artifacts from the town’s firefighting history decorate the station. The department’s first wooden fire hose cart hangs in the lobby, surrounded by repurposed timber from the remains of the first blaze that the chief of the NFD battled.

The facility was designed with a focus on innovative carcinogen prevention, emphasizing decontamination programming. It does so by directing members from the apparatus bay (Hot Zone) to a decon room where they leave their firefighting equipment. They then move into a showering room (Warm Zone) to clean themselves, dress in clean clothes and enter a hallway with heavy carcinogen protection (Cold Zone).

Insulated metal panels that clad the station exterior conserve energy and require little upkeep.

A terracotta rainscreen, zinc panel accents and brick walls combine to fortify the station against harsh weather conditions with little maintenance cost. (Brick and terracotta reference Northbridge’s mill-town heritage.)

Without precedent, it was vital that Northbridge’s first fire station not only was a success but also a guide for the rebirth of the town.

Architect: The Galante Architecture Studio