The 8,500 sf, two story brick-faced building is Emeryville's first new fire station since the 1950's. It is dramatically sited within 50' of San Francisco Bay, with commanding views of San Francisco and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges. The design is intended to evoke images of firehouses of an earlier day, a warm and inviting neighborhood building with a civic dignity.

photo: Richard Barnes

The brick relates to the many industrial loft buildings in Emeryville that have been renovated into offices, shops, and live/work studios. The large front and rear overhead doors are clear glass to display the new fire trucks, preserve views through to the Bay, and provide assurance to the citizens that help is standing by. An hydraulic hose drying elevator is enclosed in a clock tower, intended to be a new civic marker.

The project site is located on non-engineered earth fill and Bay Mud in an earthquake- prone region and required a pile-supported concrete mat foundation. As an "essential facility" as defined by the Uniform Building Code, the fire station required the highest level of seismic design.

The new fire station houses 3 pieces of front line apparatus as well as administrative offices for the fire chief, repair shop, and dormitory space for 4 shifts of firefighters. The traditional brass fire pole connects the dorm rooms, lounge and dining facilities on the upper level with the offices, physical training, decontamination and turnout rooms, storage and repair facilities, and the apparatus room on the lower level. Emergency communications systems are shared with the adjacent existing police headquarters that was remodeled as part of the project.

Because of the highly sensitive siting on the shore of San Francisco Bay, the project required an extensive public agency review process and citizen input, including hearings before the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, as well as the city's Planning Commission and City Council. The designers worked with a project committee consisting of Redevelopment Agency officials, Police and Fire Chiefs, a City Council member, and interested private citizens. Raising the standard of design quality on the Emeryville Peninsula was a key client concern. The project followed a very tight, "fast-track" schedule which required the selection of a general contractor before final documents were complete.

The Peninsula Fire Station has been the recipient of several design awards, including a 1992 Design Achievement Award for commercial architecture, sponsored by Northern California Home and Garden and San Francisco Mart, and the 1992 Merit Award for the best commercial project utilizing brick, sponsored by the Brick Institute of California.

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