In Quarters: Venice, FL, Fire Station #1 and City Hall

This facility received a Shared Facilities Notable award in the 2023 Firehouse Station Design Awards. Find the full list of winners here.

The city of Venice is a vulnerable, Gulf-side barrier island community. Recently, the city had two mandates: replace the existing 1960s fire station and accommodate an expansion to city hall. The design concept unifies the fire station and city hall into the civic center campus that was envisioned in the historic 1926 John Nolan master plan. The objective was to design a three-bay, 12,000-sq.-ft.-plus fire station, which effectively doubled the size of the existing station, and construct a new building department annex to alleviate overcrowding of several city departments, all on the same space-constrained site. The new station shares amenities and critical infrastructure with city hall, including a 520-sq.-ft. exercise room that has connected restrooms and showers; 900 sq. ft. of community space, including a 475-sq.-ft. meeting room, lobby and public restrooms; and a shared generator and chiller yard that serves the entire campus.

The fire station conforms to the city’s Northern Italian overlay district design standards. The station includes a ground-floor, open-concept dayroom/dining/ kitchen area that has lockable pantries; a report room; a lanai; three 70-foot-deep drive-thru apparatus bays; a bunker gear locker room; an air bottle fill room; a workbench; EMS storage; and a decontamination room.

The second floor prioritizes fire staff recovery via 10 single-occupancy bunkrooms, including one lieutenant’s suite that has a private restroom, and three additional single-occupancy restrooms. All spaces are stacked tight to the side of the apparatus bay, which facilitates quick response times. The second-floor response is aided by two sets of stairs and a slide. One of the two stairs extends to an additional level and has a wide center shaft to accommodate stokes basket and other training drills.

Architect/Firm Name: Sweet Sparkman Architecture and Interiors