Fire Station No. 1
Fall 2017 / Institutions / Christian Unverzagt
This project interrogates the fire station typology and attempts to propose an architecture that operates as a modality for reducing fire fighter response times. Currently, the Ann Arbor Fire Department faces political and budgetary challenges that contribute to their response times to be almost double the national recommendation of a 6.5-minute response time. Upon analysis of an average daily response time break down, it also became apparent that there was a correlation between what activity [program] a fire fighter was doing and the response time (e.g. sleeping on the third floor in the dormitory at night resulted in some of the highest response times). Additionally, speed data was collected as a means to understand how quickly a firefighter would need to travel to get to the fire truck within the turnout time recommendation.
Given the research, it was determined that the implementation of slides would provide for the quickest vertical circulation. Slides were carefully placed in three locations, and the programmatic pieces were situated around the slide shafts with careful consideration given to the travel distances a fire fighter might be from a slide at any given time. Given that the travel distance had to be restrained, it resulted in a significant reduction of building footprint; utilizing half the footprint that the existing fire station does. The implementation of the slide also allows more separation between the apparatus bay and the living quarters which is beneficial for firefighters’ overall health. The slide is also the safest option for fast travel between floors, as opposed to the typical pole or stair.
The implementation of the slide, thus proved, that regardless of a lack of staff or budgetary concerns, Ann Arbor could meet the national response time standards.
