As part of the Town of Seekonk’s ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of its residents, its fire department has been lobbying for a new fire station to cover its southern-most districts. As part of this on-going effort, BTGA was hired to conduct a feasibility study to locate this station at an existing decommissioned school. The study included a programming effort where we interviewed key stakeholders and toured the Town’s existing stations to better understand their needs. This posed a great opportunity to understand what works in their existing spaces and what could work better. We provided a number of test-fit plan designs to show the Town their options, including pros and cons of each layout.

Also included were site plans to show options for hands-on training spaces, traffic circulation that allowed fire fights to access the trucks quickly in an emergency while keeping the public safe, and natural barriers to help marry the building into the residential neighborhood. Internally, the floor plan clearly designated public and private spaces, understood visibility needs for safety and staffing efficiency, and accessibility to promote faster call response times. When a future dispatch area was added to the scope, we were able to test-fit possible expansion options to allow for their growing needs while thoughtfully planning their first design phase to allow easy accommodations of future additions.