Fire Station 14, sited in the growing northwest quadrant of Salt Lake City, is a 17,200 square foot dual-company facility. The two-story station includes a 4-bay apparatus garage, individual dorms for 12 firefighters, and  a 25-person multi-purpose / training room. Firefighter amenities include an exercise room, a second-floor exterior roof deck, a theater / day room and a full-service, commercial-quality kitchen. 

As part of its new sustainability objective, Salt Lake City Corporation required the facility to achieve Net Zero Energy with 100% onsite renewable sources. The Fire Department desired a new, state-of-the-art station with the highest level of functional efficiencies achievable and appropriate support for firefighter wellness.  To achieve the Net Zero Energy directive, the design team engaged in a continual and collaborative assessment of design decisions and energy modeling. As the nation’s first Net Zero Energy fire station, this new facility incorporated a number of active and passive strategies to reduce its energy consumption.  

The Fire Department desired extensive amounts of glass at the public levels. At all south-, east- and west-facing facades, the architects used a high-performance, thermally broken, triple-glazed curtainwall system which incorporated argon-filled insulated glass and a ceramic frit to further reduce solar heat gain.

All regularly occupied spaces are provided with operable windows and doors to take advantage of natural ventilation and reduce heating and cooling loads. To ensure that the building was not wasting energy, each operable window and door incorporates a contact switch turning off the mechanical system feeding that particular space when the door or window is in the open position.

For the overall design approach, the architect’s vision was to create an exceptional architectural solution elevating the City’s fire station design aesthetic to a more appropriate civic status. The resulting design solution is a direct response to the functional requirements and the sustainable design initiatives while achieving a higher level of civic presence. The building’s exterior cladding choices were made in relation to the surrounding context while still achieving some texture and implied movement at the façade. Extensive amounts of glass were requested by the Fire Department to provide a more open and welcoming connection back to the community. In the evening hours, the building becomes a lantern of safety and security for the district.