March 7, 2008

DISTRICT 8 REPORT: New Fire Station No. 36 discussed at recent D8CRT meeting

By Bonnie Mace
Special to the Times

Evergreen will soon have a brand-new fire station at the corner of Silver Creek and Yerba Buena Roads.

Fire Station No. 36 is a state-of-the-art facility that will replace the aging and obsolete Fire Station No. 24, according to Mallory Cusenbery, one of the design architects on the project. Mallory spoke about the new fire station at a recent meeting of the District 8 Community Round Table.

“Fire Station No. 36 will be a 21st century firehouse, and it is designed to meet the needs of the community. It combines the operational requirements of a traditional fire station with a modern design that integrates into the neighborhood,” Cusenbery told the audience of approximately 30 D8CRT members.

The project’s design is aimed at minimizing adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood.

“We had five goals in mind when we were designing this project. We wanted to address the needs of the adjacent residential neighborhood in terms of traffic, focus on the pedestrian environment, screen unsightly elements such as parking, understand the connection between the location of the fire station and the linear park, and create an aesthetically interesting building,” explained Cusenbery.

In order to have the least impact on traffic on the adjacent residential streets, the fire station has been designed with a drive-thru configuration. Fire trucks will pull out onto Silver Creek Road and return to the station via Yerba Buena.
In terms of making the fire station more attractive to the surrounding community, the project designers envision a building that has transparent glass windows showcasing the fire apparatus. Trees will be planted to screen the parking stalls for the fire station. “The idea is that there should be continuity between the adjacent park and the fire station,” said Cusenbery.

Fire Station No. 36 will also provide a showcase for public art in the community, according to Jennifer Easton, Senior Project Manager of San Jose’s Public Art Program. Artists Claudia Reisenberger and Franka Diehnelt will provide the building’s artwork at a cost of $143,000. The artwork will be exhibited over the apparatus bay and the entrance to the building, and it will focus on expressing visually the notion of the “eight-minute response time” of the San Jose Fire Department.

In addition to responding to the needs of the Evergreen community, the project’s designers also address the health and privacy needs of the firefighters. In order to deal with privacy issues, the new facility is designed with individual bunk rooms containing beds, lockers and bathrooms all in the same room. This configuration allows for flexibility in terms of accommodating male and female firefighters. The interior of the fire station also includes an exercise room so that the firefighters can stay in shape.

After the presentation by the project’s design architect, several D8CRT members asked questions concerning the new fire station.

“What will happen to Fire Station No. 24 after the completion of Fire Station No. 36?” asked D8 resident Vikki Lang.
Tom Bohn, Fire Department Deputy Director, explained that once Fire Station No. 36 is operational, then Fire Station No. 24 will be closed. The staff from Fire Station No. 24 will move to Fire Station No. 36. Bohn assured the audience that this change will not affect the response time for residents located near Fire Station No. 24.

“We will still keep our same eight-minute response time for all residents in the community,” said Bohn. He added that Fire Station No. 24 will be the only District 8 fire station that will close as a result of the addition of the new facility.
D8 resident Mike Alvarado asked whether the new fire station will be more cost-effective than the older fire stations.

“On a square-foot basis, this configuration is very cost-effective. Additionally, the interior surfaces, such as floors and sinks, are all designed for durability. There will be reduced maintenance costs associated with this type of design,” explained Bohn.

Fire Station No. 36 will cost approximately $6 million to build, and construction is slated to begin later this year. The new fire station is funded by the Measure O public safety bond approved by voters in 2002.

The next District 8 Community Round Table meeting will be held on March 11 at the Evergreen Branch Library, from 7-9 p.m. For more details on the D8CRT, visit the Yahoo User Group site at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/D8C_RoundTable/.

Bonnie Mace is a D8CRT officer.