By Alan M. Petrillo
The Davenport (IA) Fire Department’s Central Fire Station maintains its status as the oldest operating fire station west of the Mississippi after a renovation and new addition designed by Galante Architecture Studio gave new life to the old building, originally built in 1901, and married it with a new structure that brings the fire complex into the 21st century.
Staying in Service
Lynn Washburn, the Davenport Fire Department’s chief, says the 10,000-square-foot renovated portion of the Central Fire Station will continue to house a fire and rescue boat and lighter weight vehicles such as a light and air van, a brush rig, a district chief’s vehicle, and additional staff vehicles. The second floor of the old structure houses 10 administrative offices and a training room with its back wall exposed to the original 1901 brick.
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1 Galante Architecture Studio married a 20,000-square-foot addition to a renovated 10,000-square-foot fire station built in 1901 for the Davenport (IA) Fire Department. (Photos courtesy of Galante Architecture Studio.) |
Ted Galante, principal at Galante Architecture Studio, says it was important to Davenport to keep the operating status of the original station. “We wanted to respect the history and good years that the Davenport station had but help the department move forward,” Galante says. “Some people want to preserve the past, while others want buildings to look like structures of today. So for me, it’s an urban planning issue. The best years are ahead for all of us, with things looking brighter, so we want to build forward-looking structures because buildings are our cultural community of who was here and when.”
Bridging History
Galante says his role was to build a bridge between the historic building and the new structure, which he accomplished by the scale of the structures, as well as visual connection. “The addition and the renovated fire station are part of a municipal complex with a police station and municipal courthouse located diagonally to the fire station. Each of those buildings has an addition, so we did a similar thing with the Central Fire Station,” he notes. “The police station has a bridge made of beige masonry and channel glass, so we did a similar thing on the new hose tower of the fire station, which is partially clad in channel glass that lights up at night and complements the police station.”
The two-story expanded portion of the fire station is 20,000 square feet with terracotta material on its upper level to reflect the common brick on the original fire station, Galante explains. “It serves as a visual link between the existing building and the expansion of the station,” he says. “And, the beige colored lower panels on the expansion are a link to the street-faced brick of the older building.”
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2 The renovated Davenport (IA) Central Fire Station continues its life as the oldest operating fire station west of the Mississippi River. |
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