Hennebery Eddy Architects, Inc

Fire Station 76

Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer

Fire Station 76

Hennebery Eddy Architects

PHOTOS
Josh Partee Architectural Photographer

STATUS
Built

AREA
10,000 Sqft - 25,000 Sqft

BUDGET
$1m - 5m

YEAR
2015

LOCATION
Gresham, OR, United States

TYPE
Government + Health › Fire/police/military

In its simplest form, a fire station comprises little more than a dwelling with an oversized garage. At its most complex, it embodies the values of its community and functions as a highly technical machine for emergency response.

Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer
Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer

That understanding, infused with aspects of storytelling and context, inspired our design effort.

Presiding over patterned fields and the Cascade mountains, Fire Station 76 serves a community of family farms and nurseries.

Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer
Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer

The evident beauty of the rural environment suffused with quietly formed agricultural buildings, textured with materials of simplicity and practicality–primarily wood and metal, provided inspiration for the building concept.

The functional focus of the station: fire – an element of both beauty and destruction – guided the treatment of materials.

Using reclaimed timber from a nearby barn, the design included charring the wood surface with the traditional Japanese technique, Shou Sugi Ban.

Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer
Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer
Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer

In effect, the burn provides protection from rot, decay, and insects, and turns the destructive manner of fire into an image of beauty.

The station divides into two masses: a vaulted apparatus bay clad with metal and low-lying living quarters wrapped in wood.

The apparatus bay glulam Tudor arches spanned by tongue and groove cedar decking vault over the engines, celebrating their strength and precision.

Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer
Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer

Clad in a dark board and batten reclaimed and charred siding, the living quarters rotates to face the mountains, providing sanctuary, while the lightly-colored metal clad apparatus bay orients towards the road, presenting the most recognizable feature of a fire station–the engines, to the public.

Warm Western red cedar clad porches carve into the living quarters structure, sheltering exterior spaces from wind, and providing a rich comparison for the adjacent charred wood.

Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer
Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer

The cedar continues to the building interior, surrounding the primary gathering spaces of the living quarters, blending inside with outside.


Daylight fills the spaces, highlighting the warm wood tones.

Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer
Fire Station 76
©Josh Partee Architectural Photographer

The station embraces fire, turning it into a feature of protection and beauty; provides a legacy for the rural community, reflecting its context in both massing and materials; and honors engines as technical machines for emergency response.


Fire Station 76


Fire Station 76
Fire Station 76
Fire Station 76

Hennebery Eddy Architects, Inc
T +1 503 2274860
Hennebery Eddy Architects, Inc
921 SW Washington St #250, Portland, OR 97205, United States