The Station Design Awards: When Planning, Conversation and Collaboration on New Fire Stations Pay Off

Peter Matthews explains how the award-winning stations highlight the dedication to plan and understand for today, tomorrow and decades into the future.

Peter Matthews

Nov. 9, 2026

4 min read

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Key Takeaways

Planning the design and construction of a new firehouse, fire training facility, or building that houses a fire department and other municipal functions requires an understanding on the part of all who are involved of the fire department’s response needs simultaneous with the health and wellness needs of the firefighters, including consideration of how all of that might evolve in the years ahead.
Unsurprisingly, consideration of what a fire station might need in the future must account for burgeoning technology. For example, today, what only were concepts a decade ago—smart station alerting systems and Drone as First Responder platforms—steadily are becoming mainstays for inclusion when department personnel, architects and builders sit down at the drawing board.
On-site training props and facilities in the design and construction of more and more fire stations result from recognition that career and volunteer firefighters’ time—on and off duty—is of paramount importance in a day and age when lifestyles and emergency response is so different than even the recent past.

The Station Design Awards: When Planning, Conversation and Collaboration on New Fire Stations Pay Off

This month’s magazine is certainly larger than normal, thanks to the 23 fire departments and architects who submitted their recently completed fire stations, training academies or shared facilities for the 2026 Station Design Awards. The time that was spent planning each station, from understanding the department’s response requirements to offering valuable spaces and outfitting them for firefighter wellness and health needs while factoring in those needs for tomorrow, was an investment on the part of all of those who were involved.

It’s much more than a roughed-out plan or bullet points on a napkin. It’s understanding what’s to come for two or three generations after you leave the firehouse from your last call. With technology evolving faster than we can keep up with, it’s only a matter of time before most firehouses have drones in the air as members make their way to the rigs for a call. Absent from new firehouses are the loudspeakers and gongs that could wake the dead or make it impossible to obtain some decent rest between runs, replaced by more heart- and firefighter-friendly systems that can prevent long-term damage to your heart and body systems.

Revised energy and heating/cooling systems are being introduced to save money amid rising costs, and interiors and exteriors are being constructed with materials that require low maintenance and have long-term durability. Today’s volunteer stations must be right-sized for a time down the road when part- or full-time staff are brought in to supplement the volunteer crisis that many communities face. With mother nature’s storms worsening seemingly each year, storm shelters and other structural components must be assessed depending on particular climate and weather threats to keep the station up and running.

You’ll see that many of the new stations have built-in training as a highlighted part of the project, which is encouraging. Now, with limited time to leave your district to use a prop at another station, firehouses are designed with training among the top priorities, which is reassuring in terms of allowing you to keep up your skills on the craft of fire and rescue operations.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the firehouses that I grew up around, including one that’s nearing its 100th anniversary of continuous operation. The station was renovated to meet the demands of heavier, larger rigs, and more holes have been poked into walls to update the technology throughout the station.

However, it’s still a home for the members and their equipment, albeit much tighter today than it was 20 years ago as members prepare to respond to a call.

In addition to the Gold, Silver and Bronze award-winning stations, the section includes dozens of more facilities that are the successful culmination of long-term planning, framed up by discussions of wants and needs between fire departments, architecture firms and builders. The discussions can go on for months, even years, before, during and after the budget process takes place and continue until after the first days of the station being occupied, to ensure that every piece functions as designed.

Unlike a fire truck, which has a 20-year lifespan, these stations will last for generations.

Starting on page 35, view the 89 submissions from this year’s Station Design Awards, from urban firehouses to smaller stations that are tucked away in the mountains.

Station Design Conference

The advisory board for next year’s Station Design Conference is putting the finishing touches on the program, which continues to expand. The conference is not only for fire departments that are looking for new stations or training facilities but has grown to cover facilities for partners from law enforcement, EMS, public works and community departments, where shared facilities are becoming more common. The conference program can be found at fhstationdesign.com next month.

The 2027 conference will take place in Orlando, May 18–20, and will bring all the solution-providers to one venue, so you can build your network to make your next station an award-winning facility.