Through a detailed program questionnaire, user group interviews, and neighborhood meetings, the HOA would only allow a fire station that looked like a custom residence. The design was streamlined due to Perlman’s significant residential experience. The site was unique in that the building pad was close to 14 feet below the adjacent roadways. Our approach was to develop an ADA compliant split level plan that allowed the site to remain in it’s natural state by stepping the floor plan to work with the existing contours. In addition to working with the existing site topography, our Design Team incorporated natural Xeriscape landscaping that blends with the surrounding area. We also developed a drainage strategy that kept the off-site drainage from negatively affecting the Fire Station. The use of carefully designed aprons and drainage channels captured 100% of off-site drainage and diverted away from the building.

The project construction budget was very limited so we incorporated a few tricks of the residential trade; synthetic corbels, shutters, and architectural features to enhance the design while minimizing budget impact. A creative design feature was a simulated fireplace, from the inside, was th n equipments/antennas. We detailed the chimney cap with an RF friendly material that screens the antennas/dishes but looks like a residential chimney.