Elkridge Fire Station – New Construction
More than a decade ago, a Howard County study recommended a new site for the Elkridge Fire Station. The existing fire station was old, deteriorating and unable to meet the growing demands of the local community. The new 33,750sf station now sits on Montgomery Road between Bauman and Rowanberry Drives. The new station includes a four-story fire fighter’s training tower, six bays for emergency vehicles, sleeping quarters for 23 fire fighters, a fitness room, a community room with a full service commercial kitchen and dining room, general use rooms, a training room, offices, and emergency preparation and evacuation area. The station’s watch command desk automatically receives information from the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, alert rescue personnel, ramp-up station lights, open apparatus bay doors and switch traffic signals adjacent to the facility. A diesel generator with 72-hour fuel supply will serve the entire load of the fire station, which can also serve as an emergency shelter for 200 people.
Gipe Associates provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and telecommunications systems design in compliance with ASHRAE Standard 90.1 in order to achieve LEED Silver Certification. The HVAC system consists of an energy efficient geothermal system sized for the entire building cooling and heating loads. A rooftop unit was provided to serve the high occupancy rooms, like the community room, dining hall, and locker rooms. Specialized exhaust and filtering systems were designed to ventilate the apparatus bays. Fire protection was provided via wet-pipe sprinkler system through-out the facility. Electrical design included interior and exterior lighting, lighting distribution control, power distribution, communications, fire alarm, fire station alerting system, access control, telecommunications, data and special systems.
Sustainable Design Features include:
Geothermal system
Low-Flow Water Saving Fixtures
High efficiency gas-fired water heaters
Occupancy Controlled Lighting
LED Fixtures
Daylight Harvesting
*LEED Silver Certified
33,000 sf / $10 million
Project Type: Public Safety,