In Quarters: Harris County ESD 11 Mobile Healthcare Headquarters, Houston, TX

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

The mobile healthcare central campus for Harris County Emergency Services District (ESD) 11 is an adaptation of a former pipe lay-down yard and various existing structures into a new headquarters that provides administration, 9-1-1 dispatch, emergency operations, fleet maintenance and ambulance deployment for emergency response. The shared facility houses the administrative needs of the governing emergency services district as well as the operational needs of the emergency medical and mobile healthcare provider. The facility design provides for efficient and consistent stocking of EMS supplies for ambulance deployment as well as a support kitchen, a break room and restroom facilities for EMTs, who deploy each day to assigned areas of the response region rather than staying at the station.

The existing facilities’ construction and land/soil features presented physical constraints to the design solution, including:

• Weathered and non-code-compliant wall and roof structure type and assembly
• Life-safety code noncompliance for intended emergency operations use, including lack of sufficient elevator travel between floors of multistory structures.
• Insufficient structural capacity of prepared subgrade and concrete slab/paving for support of emergency response vehicle traffic.
• Structural height limitations
• Insufficient electrical capacity and emergency standby power generation capability.

Exploration of various design iterations and alternatives included the following, in close
coordination with the design-build contractor and the owner representatives:

• Structural bracing of new openings created in the existing wall systems for wind-load capacity
  and bearing of new overhead door systems, several types of which were evaluated.
• Analysis of methods to enhance existing roof framing structural capacity to accommodate
  roof-mounted diesel exhaust removal systems and air ventilation systems.
• Various site plan and floor plan layouts to determine a functional design for an ambulance
  and other emergency operations deployment within the confines of the existing building
  footprints and site features.

Architect/Firm Name: Martinez Architects