This past week, FIRE CHIEF held its second annual Station Style Conference in Denver. With more than 320 attendees and exhibitors, from fire chiefs to commissioners who hailed from Connecticut and California and every state in between, the conference was very well-received by all.
Some speakers were brought back by popular demand from last year’s conference in Phoenix. Mary McGrath, AIA, of Ratcliff Architects offered some new information on operations-based design, and Dennis Ross, AIA, of Pacheco Ross Architects, discussed ways to communicate fire department needs and offered an excellent emergency response facility design timeline.
Returning as sponsors this year were Plymovent, ReadyRack, First-In, Pacheco Ross Architects, GearGrid, Cole + Russell Architects, and Door Engineering. New sponsors included Stewart Cooper Newell Architects, Locution Systems, Electric Power Door, AirMation and MSA (Michael Schuster Architects). Exhibits from these sponsors lined the main ballroom of the venue.
While in Denver, I heard a lot of great observations that I want to share with you.
In “Operations-Based Design,” Mary McGrath asked, “How do you see women continuing to participate in your department? Talk to your architect about restroom facilities and how to provide adequate facilities so that you don’t have to adjust staffing if you have two or more women on a shift.”
Sharing facilities also was the topic of a presentation by Brian Harris, AIA, of TCA Inc. and Herb Roth of Roth Shepherd. “Perhaps the biggest feature, as land costs go up, the land costs are certainly a reason that facilities should be shared,” Roth said. “Lobby and physical fitness are the ones that can also be shared. Customers from police departments are completely different from fire departments, and they don’t want to see those customers get too close to each other.”
Larry Enyart, FAIA, LEED, of LEA Architects, addressed a question he is frequently asked about environmentally correct or “green” buildings: “When should we start a LEED building? We should really start immediately because the longer you wait the harder it becomes and the more expensive it becomes.”
In his presentation on “Building the Firehouse with Dollars and Sense,” Central Kitsap (Wash.) Fire Commissioner Dave Fergus, who also is partner in Rice Fergus Miller Architecture and Planning, said, “We like to bid our projects in January and start in early spring. If you time it right, you get your project [exterior] finished before the school districts are out and their work starts.”
He also offered three things to keep in mind when creating a fire station budget: quantity, quality and costs. “Quantity is defined by operations — that’s the square footage and is measurable. Quality is your choice of materials — define quality. Costs are defined by quality and quantity,” Fergus said. “You can control two, but you’ll lose the other one.”
A favorite quote I picked up during the conference was offered by Rick Tripp, AIA, of MSA. At the beginning of his presentation, Tripp quoted basketball coach John Wooden, noting that “all progress requires change, but not all change is progress.”
