Fire Station 27, the City of Dallas’ first multi-story fire station in over 65 years, became fully operational on December 3rd, 2015. A public grand opening celebration will take place on December 10th at 9 a.m.
The 23,600 square foot facility will have capacity for 15 fire personnel per shift, and represents the most advanced design of all the City of Dallas’ new fire stations. The multi-level design, created in response to the challenges of a dense urban site, afforded the unique opportunity to develop a 2-story feature wall that highlights six individuals who were pioneers in the Dallas Fire Department between 1872 and 1977. These metal etchings, crafted by a local artist, include John Clark, the first firefighter to die in the line of duty in the City of Dallas; Captain Ralph T. Lack, the first member of Fire Station 27 to die in the line of duty; Chief W.C. Bud Connor, the first Chief of the Dallas Fire Department; Kenneth L. Parker, the Department’s first African American firefighter; Andres Enriquez, the Department’s first Hispanic firefighter; and Sherrie Clark Wilson, the first female in Fire and Rescue.
“The design intends to re-establish a proper civic presence for the firehouse,” said Ron Stelmarski, Design Director for the Texas Practice of Perkins+Will. “Functionally, the story wall serves as a volumetric separation between the people-places and the machine-spaces of the station, but more importantly, it celebrates the history and legacy of firefighting in the service of community.”
“The replacement Fire Station No. 27 for the City of Dallas is the most challenging new station for the City to date due to the site’s small size and location at one of the busiest intersections in Dallas,” said Zaida Basora, Assistant Director of Public Works with the City of Dallas. “We selected Perkins+Will to provide an innovative solution that would fit on the existing site which seemed much too small for Dallas’ modern fire station program. Perkins+Will had previously worked successfully with the City of Dallas on Fire Station No. 50, another challenging station and site in Southwest Dallas. Perkins+Will has successfully delivered an innovative station by developing a new 3-story design that accommodates all of Dallas’ state of the art program requirements as well as the required personnel parking in a very small footprint. Response time models developed by Perkins+Will convinced Fire Department leadership that public safety was at the forefront of the new design. As a bonus, during research of Station 27’s and the Dallas Fire Department’s heroic history by the Perkins+Will team, an idea to educate current and future generations emerged and was skillfully integrated into the new design. The new facility is also one of the most sustainable Fire Stations in Dallas. This is a proud moment for the City of Dallas.”
The fire station is LEED Gold registered, employing sustainable design strategies such as solar panels, a storm water collection cistern, and high performance glazing, lighting and HVAC system. Layout was carefully orchestrated to keep response times to under 60 seconds.
