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Inlet Centre Fire Hall by Zuzanna Wodzynska COURTESY CHERNOFF THOMPSON ARCHITECTS L ocated in the City of Port Moody, the Inlet Centre Fire Hall is a much needed upgrade for the city's Fire Rescue Department. The new, three-storey facility blends a contemporary urban design with his- toric influences. The exterior cladding is primarily brick at the lower levels for durability, with some corrugated steel around the third floor. Accents are pro- vided by composite aluminum panels and black cement board cladding. The street facing truck doors are a traditional fire hall red, with brick arches and concrete keystones above the doors. At the front of the hall is a glass display of an antique fire truck that, along with the structural and design elements, speak of the fire fight- ing history. Though the new facility is nearly double the size of the old 1970s Fire Hall No. 1 and has the ability to func- tion as a backup Emergency Operations Centre, efforts were made to minimize the building's footprint. "We tried to strike a balance between a site size that made operational sense and one that caused the least amount of environmen- tal damage," says fire chief Remo Faedo. The first f loor features two sepa- rate truck bays, as well as service and support rooms, including the breathing air equipment and gear storage rooms, and a workshop. The primary bay houses four trucks, while the secondary one accommodates three. Between the two truck bays, on a narrow mezzanine, are the mechanical, electrical and communication rooms. The second floor accommodates the crew quarters including kitchen, day room, lockers and washrooms, fitness room, laundry, and crew dorms. The third floor contains two spacious and well-equipped classrooms for training as well as the administrative offices formerly housed at the old fire hall and in two separate trailers. "Many efficiencies can be realized by having administration, training and fire prevention, and emergency man- agement together because there is so much overlap and interconnectivity on the administrative and functional side of each division," recognizes Faedo. Though there currently aren't any female firefighters among the Port Moody crew, the Inlet Centre Fire Hall has been built anticipating their needs with individual washrooms and two individual sleeping rooms. The three-storey training tower incorporates a hose-drying feature LOCATION 150 Newport Drive, Port Moody, B.C. OWNER/DEVELOPER City of Port Moody ARCHITECT Chernoff Thompson Architects GENERAL CONTRACTOR Kinetic Construction Ltd. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Bush, Bohlman & Partners MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT H.Y. Engineering Ltd. TOTAL AREA 20,000 square feet TOTAL COST $8.4 million along with its primary use – a design feature to meet Port Moody's needs as the Inlet Centre Fire Hall is its pri- mary firefighter training facility. To that end, detailed planning and care- ful consideration went into the design stage but also had to be taken into account from a construction standpoint. The roof over the primary truck bay is also a large exterior deck with con- crete pavers featuring a training hatch to practice rescues. "Because of the height and mix of functions, we needed some higher fire separations than is typical in a fire hall, and the concrete structure and fire-proofed steel pro- vided these," says Rand Thompson of Chernoff Thompson Architects. Moreover, as a post-disaster build- ing, the Hall must adhere to much more stringent design requirements. The new hall's building site presented some chal- lenges in meeting these, however. The native soils consist of inter- layered soft, silty clay, extending to depths of about 45 feet or 13.6 metres. "The design solution was to support the entire building including the vehicle bays on a grid of steel pile supported, concrete grade beams," says Rob Hall, structural engineering consultant of Bush, Bohlman & Partners. "The lateral seismic loads are resisted by compacted granular fill around the pile caps and deep grade beams." Terra Contracting Ltd. was the earth and civil work contractor for the project. Terra was responsible for installation and relocation of a four-phase preload, foundation excavation, wetland clearing and remediation, building backfill, light- weight sensitive backfill, the retaining wall and site servicing. Multi-phasing preload, site logistics and environmen- tal sensitivity of the area were some of the challenges Terra had to overcome during this project. Other challenges came from envi- ronmental concerns, with a salmon bearing stream system running imme- diately west of the site. "Dewatering and sediment controls were addressed during construction to ensure only clear stormwater was discharged back to the natural system," says Mike Walz of Kinetic Construction Ltd. Consideration for the environment was also implemented into the perma- nent design of the building, following the framework of LEED silver stan- dards. "The upper butterf ly roof has a white covering to ref lect light and heat, and has a smooth surface to col- lect rainwater at the centre of the roof, which is taken to a large holding tank in the crawl space under the centre of the building," adds Thompson. This tank provides non-potable water to the toi- lets and urinals, can be used for wash- ing the trucks and provides the building with a self-contained water source in the event of an emergency. "Also, the mechanical system uses variable refrigerant flow to move heat about the building, using heat from warm areas to warm cool areas and vice versa," adds Thompson. "This is one of the most energy-efficient mechanical systems available." Other sustainability features include a diesel extraction system in both truck bays, and a green roof planted with drought-tolerant plants. "Most important to me is the ability to work out of a facility that allows our department to operate as efficiently as we can from all of our divisions and for many years to come," says Faedo. n APRIL 2014 /49 Inlet Centre Fire Hall Do you have a project of interest to our readers? If you would like your project to be considered for a future issue of Award, please email: Dan Chapman, Publisher dchapman@canadawide.com AWD Project Filler 1/16 v. gs AWD Project Filler 1-16v. gs 6/3/08 3:22 PM Page 1