PUBLIC WORKS
Solar Fire Station

LOCATION: Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

SIZE: 3,150 s.f. (45’x70’)

COST: $183,000 (first phase) ($58 / s.f.)

OWNER: Rio Arriba County

DATE: 1999

MAJOR MATERIALS: Insulated Steel Frame, Steel exterior siding & roofing, interior GWB, Cement & VCT floors.

SYSTEMS: Passive Solar heating and cooling; propane fired back–up heating; Generator back-up electrical system. 

ENVIRONMENT & DESIGN:  This site is located at an elevation of 8,000 feet in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico. To take advantage of the high desert temperature extremes, a passive solar heated structure was designed.  Facing the building five degrees east of south, large expanses of glazing in the overhead doors and clerestory windows allow maximum solar penetration for heating in winter. High mass flooring and water filled tanker trucks hold the solar heat from the day and slowly release it during the night. A five foot canopy & overhang prevents summer solar gain, keeping the building cool in summer months.  Two of the three bays have drive through capacity, an aid to quick response times for the Department. A large meeting room can function for community events as well with a pass through window to the large bay area.  The fire station was located on the site with as little disturbance to the landscape as possible.  The building was painted fire-engine red as a reference to it’s function as the area’s fire station and to make it easily visible in emergency conditions such as those requiring helicopter airlifts. Circular cut-outs in the side walls refer metaphorically to the building’s solar design and relationship with the spherical bodies of the cosmos.   

BUILDER:  Sarcon West