Students of Advanced Architectural Studio II at Arizona State University were asked to design new fire stations for one of four sites in the Phoenix Metro Area.  This project lies in Midtown Phoenix, in an empty lot once home to traditional casita residential units.  Razed to make way for commercial and high-rise development that never arrived, this lot has served as an empty promise to the community native to central Phoenix.  With the Phoenix lightrail running past the site, and the application of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) special zoning, change for the site is inevitable (as evidenced by a new residential development adjacent to the site). 

 

The new Phoenix Fire Station 9 needed to meet both the complex programmatic needs of a fire station and battalion headquarters, as well serve as an important new community asset influencing the future of the neighborhood and its role in the community.  As much as it provides an efficient and functional fire station for the Phoenix Fire Department, it creates a new place for the community to share art, hold meetings, and recreate - a place for the community to call home.

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The final design is intended to create a strong tie to the Phoenix Firefighter Association, located across the street, and tie strong technical solutions to welcoming community features.  It is intended to serve as a place that fosters positive relationships between firefighters and members of the community.

  

A truss superstructure serves as the dominant feature, freeing up interior space and allowing for an apparatus bay free of columns.  Other technical solutions for the fire station include an evaporative cooling tower that provides natural cooling to indoor lobbies and the outdoor courtyard, and that doubles as a climbing wall for training and recreational purposes.  A second tower serves as a solar chimney, naturally exhausting air from the apparatus bays.  This second tower also houses a direct exhaust duct to assure harmful toxins from firefighters' turnout gear is safely ejected.  The building uses a porous plenum for air return and an underfloor air supply, as well as a double envelope, green roof, and shading fins for thermal control.  Strategically placed staircases allow for quick vertical circulation, while a slide replaces the traditional fire pole (no longer allowed in Arizona), allowing firefighters quick access from their dormitories directly down to the apparatus bay. 

 

In the community domain, the station provides a public multi-use court, with a hanging staircase inviting the public to explore.  The court doubles as space for firefighter recreation and training, as well as firefighter-community interaction.  Additionally, the design adds public exhibition space and a museum space, intended to house various pieces currently located in the Phoenix "Hall of Flame" museum.  A public courtyard communicates the openness of the station to the community.  Lastly, the truss superstructure provides a massive canvas for art installations, allowing the community to make the station their own.