The 2021 Station Design Conference was a record-breaker for fire and law enforcement station design conferences. Over 450 attendees from 41 states across the United States and Canada, 57 sponsors and exhibitors, and 31 presentations provided a robust gathering of networking and educational programs on designing public safety facilities.
Members from fire and law enforcement departments across the nation heard about site selection, designs, and trends in public safety design. Besides fire chiefs, police chiefs, and their staff, city managers and facility project managers were among the attendees. In fact, seven elected officials from a suburb of St. Louis also attended the conference. When asked what brought them to the conference, one of the officials said, “We care about our firefighters and police and we want to take care of them.” She added, “We brought seven of us so we can spread out and attend different sessions.”
In addition to two tracks focused on fire stations, the 2021 conference offered another track for law enforcement and an additional track on shared facilities. Physical health and mental health topics targeted both fire and law enforcement building designs.
Ken Newell, principal, Stewart-Cooper-Newell Architects, opened the conference with an introduction and overview on the process of design-and-build for a new or renovated public safety facility. While designing a building to last 50-75 years is the goal, Newell cautioned, “None of you can predict what you will need in 25 years.”
The increase of natural disasters and the impact on fire, law enforcement and public safety facilities was the focus for Susan Gantt, Architects Design Group, and Fire Chief Pete DiMaria with the Naples Fire Department. Their program focused on the increasing number of natural and manmade disasters, and the impact on public safety facilities.
According to Gantt, in 2020 alone, 25 natural disasters were each “billion-dollar events.” These events included wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, ice storms, etc. Gantt and DiMaria shared data on increased manmade disasters including civil unrest, cyber-attacks, and biohazards.
The duo shared specific areas to focus on when building a new facility, including exterior wall protection, as well as a redundancy in critical areas such as water systems, generators and fuel storage.
There was a noticeable increase in shared public safety facilities at the conference. James Stumbo, senior principal, Stewart-Cooper-Newell, addressed the positive sides of sharing a facility. “The larger the building gets, the less cost per square foot costs,” he said, adding that shared facilities benefit from bringing the utilities to one facility and how project management costs are less. “The benefits also include better opportunity for cooperation, improved efficiency and interagency training,” Stumbo said.
However, Stumbo cautioned that shared facilities also face issues with traditions, staff attitudes, privacy concerns, and egos. “If they work in the same facility, they start to act like a family,” he said.
Bob Friddle, (Ret.) director, Facilities Design and Construction, City of Minneapolis, shared some lessons learned from the civil unrest in the past 16 months. From the initial event of George Floyd’s death, the subsequent trial and political climate, to the complications from the COVID-19 pandemic, Friddle listed the improvements in security, including bulletproof glass, and steps to also protect civilians working in the public safety facilities.
Networking is always a priority at the Station Design Conference, and despite a St. Louis Cardinals game on Tuesday night, the Welcome Reception hosted by co-sponsors Brown Reynolds Watford Architects and Groves Incorporated, the exhibits area was filled with attendees.
Case studies are always popular at the Station Design conferences. Fire Chief Greg Flynn, West Bloomfield, MI, presented a case study on his new Fire Station 3 and the detours and roadblocks that he encountered.
To incorporate emotional wellness and resiliency to the crews, Flynn shared one unique idea. “We don’t have any pictures of fire scenes or fire crashes or anything like that in the station. Personnel don’t need to see pictures from ten years ago or the scene where a kid died.” Instead, Flynn added, “We encourage firefighters to bring in photos from their vacations and all we ask is there’s no people in the pictures.” These photos can then be rotated and bring a sense of ownership and emotional balance to part of the job.
Ending his presentation, Flynn’s final point was, “Ask the designer, ‘Have you done this before?'" Particularly, if it’s the first time you are tasked with a major investment of time and money for a building to last 50-70 years. Do you really want to work with an architect who is new to designing a station or public safety facility?
“This [conference is] exactly what I needed to start our project,” said a fire chief from northern New York. And we heard many similar comments throughout the three days in St. Louis. We’re looking forward to finalizing plans for the 2022 Station Design Conference next Spring.
