Building Station as House Cuts Cost, Provides for Later Sale as Residence
features
INSPECTOR C. A. CHOATNER
Riverside, Calif., Fire Dept.
Built to keep costs at a minimum and designed to blend with a noncommercial neighborhood, recently opened Station 10 in Riverside, Calif., looks like an attractive, plush, Mediterranean-style residence.
The new station at 2590 Jefferson St. also answers the question: What can you do with a fire station when changing fire protection needs call for its abandonment? In this case, the answer is that the city puts it on the market as a three-bedroom house with attached garage because that is how it was designed.
Based on research. Assistant Chief E. R. Fortner presented the idea of constructing a residential-style fire station that won the approval of Chief Richard Bosted, City Manager William Cornett and the city council.
First bids rejected
The station was designed by Dan C. Knoop, a project coordinator for the City of Riverside. The plans and specifications were completed with the instructions: “Construct a t hree-bedroom residential-style fire station.” A low bid of $256,000 was rejected by city officials as excessive. Contractors who submitted bids assumed that a fire station should be a commercial building.
So, it was back to the drawing board with some minor revisions. One of them was the removal of the words “fire station” from the instructions, leaving only “construct a three-bedroom residence.” This time, a low bid of $160,000 was accepted from Paul W. Crabtree, a local contractor. Construction was started
May 1, 1979. By using the residential concept, Riverside realized a savings of over $200,000, compared to the cost of a typical fire station.
The station has three bedrooms, two baths, a family room, dining room and living room. The living area has 2100 square feet and the attached garage, 1000 square feet. The roof is concrete tile, blue-gray in color. The exterior walls are an off-white stucco finish. A 10 X 12-foot storage shed next to the station houses the emergency generator and yard maintenance equipment. The roof and walls of the shed match the station in color and style.
The station walls were insulated with R-19 and the attic area with R-30, which is double the requifements found in a typical residence. All the windows are the twin pane insulated type to conserve energy.
The garage floor, driveway, parking area and sidewalks are poured concrete.
The garage door is an overhead steel and fiberglass door, 18 feet wide with a 10foot overhead clearance. The door has an automatic closing device.
Skylights used
Quarry tile was used for the floor in the foyer, hallway and family room for long wear and low maintenance. Vinyl asbestos tile was used in the kitchen and bathrooms. All other areas are carpeted. Lighting for the station was achieved by using various lighting systems, skylights and floor to ceiling windows. The all-electric station is air conditioned and has a heat pump system for heating.
The foyer functions as a reception area and has a desk that serves as a counter. The family room is a combination classroom and study. This room also has two skylights. The dining room is the captain’s office and has three recessed sliding wood doors to provide privacy. A sliding glass door also leads directly outside to a patio. The living room is a recreation room for reading and relaxing. Arches were cut into the interior living room walls to enhance the lighting and give the room an open look. The all-electric kitchen is equipped with all modern conveniences, plus an energy-saving microwave oven. The kitchen also has its own dining area. A special lighting effect was achieved by using fluorescent lighting above unusual angular lenses.
The three bedrooms will give the fire fighters their own private sleeping areas. The intercom and fire alarm system are integrated and there is a speaker in each room and the garage area.
All construction materials for the station were selected for low maintenance, fire resistance, durability and low energy consumption as well as aesthet ic quality.
The station houses an engine company with three fire fighters that was relocated from Station 2.