Engine Company 16 received a 2018 F.I.E.R.O. Fire Station Design Honor Award. In a follow up interview with Don Collins (DC), a 20+ year F.I.E.R.O. Board Member and Jury Chairman for the 2018 F.I.E.R.O. Design Awards, LEWA learned about the selection process for Engine Company 16 and what made it an award winner:
Jury Summary:
Exceptional architectural project within the confines of a registered historical building. Restoring the exterior to its previous glory and only enlarging the apparatus bay doors to accommodate modern fire apparatus while completely gutting and rebuilding the interior to meet the demands of the 21st century was no small task. Innovative touches such as the yellow “safety” band added to the floor to define the sweep area of the folding apparatus bay doors helped to elevate this project above all others.
DC: “ENGINE 16 was one of those rare projects that very early on in the projects review process was identified by all reviewers as an Honor Award Winner. All jurors agreed you can hardly tell that it has been remodeled and that’s what made it so outstanding.
DC: “As a design review jury we didn’t think of your firm as an architectural restoration firm. Yet, the depth with which LEWA went into the project to understand what the nature of this building was; even discovering a thing like the missing weather vane proves otherwise. Your firm went over the old drawings that you found so carefully that you found a piece of it was missing!”
DC: “You did things like using salvaged glazed blocks to replace other glazed blocks that had been damaged. This is just one of the incredible attention to detail found throughout the renovated building.”
DC: “When you look at the kitchen for instance, it has LED lights, modern appliances, and a suspended ceiling but it doesn’t look out of place. I think once the kitchen gets a few bangs and scratches, then it will appear as if it were original to the building. “
DC: “The design detail elements that LEWA added to Engine 16 just seem so natural. They feel like they were always there. Everything that you have done seems to work.”