H2M Wins A FIERO Station Design Award
The Public Safety Team is proud to announce that the Fire Industry Education Resource Organization (F.I.E.R.O.) Design Awards has presented the Massapequa Park House with a Merit Award. Led by Market Director Patrick Stone, R.A., LEED AP and Project Designer Rachael Grodzki, this is the first award for this project.
The Massapequa Fire District Board of Commissioners spent multiple years evaluating its existing facilities to determine the best course of action for its existing Park House Station. Originally built in 1953 with multiple additions over the years, the old station was not compliant with current building codes or well-suited for modern firefighting best practices and regulations, including preventing carcinogenic cross-contamination. The design team reviewed the feasibility of renovation vs. new construction and found that a major renovation would be necessary to cater to the community’s growing needs and the first responders who serve it. The existing hose drying tower from the original 1953 building was adapted and reincorporated as a prominent feature of the design. H2M also provided temporary power and critical infrastructure to maintain the operation of an existing 100-foot radio monopole during demolition and construction.
The new 21,600-square-foot station comprises seven bays, including one drive-through; integrated hands-on training for confined space, bailout, and standpipe training; decontamination spaces with a focus on hot-zone design and responder flow; and company offices, fitness facilities, training room, rehab support, and a large multipurpose room with a folding partition.
With programmatic requirements nearly doubling the existing square footage, the design team responded to the surrounding residential homes and community requests by designing the station to fit into a form suited for the local streetscape. The exterior façade blends the style of a traditional masonry fire station with softer residential elements, such as fiber cement siding, colonial style windows, and shingle roofs, while a split-level second floor aids in reducing the overall building height and doubles as an outdoor wellness patio. The roof design conceals commercial-sized mechanical equipment from view on the flat roof areas and eliminates the need for ground-level equipment.
