Materials Settled On For New Fire Station

ORLEANS – The look of the town’s new fire station came more into focus last week as the select board voted on materials for the new building planned for Eldredge Park Way.

The board voted 4-1 Aug. 5 to move forward with a hybrid clapboard and brick design for the new 39,000-square-foot facility, complete with a metal roof. The vote echoed that of the town’s fire rescue building committee, which voted 5-4 for the same design two days earlier. 

Three options were presented to the select board for consideration for the new station, construction funding of up to $55 million for which was approved at the annual town meeting in May. The hybrid option calls for the portion of the station housing offices and living quarters to use clapboard, while the apparatus bay and training tower in the back of the bay will be made of gray brick. The metal roof, meanwhile, will support solar panels over both portions of the station.

The board also looked at a design option with all clapboard throughout, and another hybrid option with a red brick apparatus bay instead of brick.

In July, the fire rescue building committee took public comment on an initial rendering where concerns were raised about how the new station would mesh with the character of the neighborhood. Residents and abutters to the new station spoke against the use of brick, which some said made the building look too “institutional.” Others voiced displeasure with the design’s lack of uniformity, citing the different colors and design features throughout.

“I think the takeaway from that first meeting was the public didn’t really want a statement building,” said Mark Mathison, the select board’s representative to the building committee. “We didn’t need a statement building. We needed something that would fit in more with the neighborhood and environment of Cape Cod, Orleans and whatnot.”

While specifics regarding color choices will be addressed at a later date, the select board Aug. 5 expressed a desire for a “monochrome” gray building across both the living space and apparatus bay. Other features of the approved design include a farmer’s porch with an overhang above the first-floor living space on the left side of the building as well as a stone ambulance bay between the living/office quarters and the apparatus bay to help break up the building’s overall massing.

Ted Galante, the project architect with The Galante Architecture Studio of Cambridge, said that the mixed clapboard and brick options would give the new station an estimated 100-year lifespan, compared to just 20 years for an all-clapboard exterior. The metal roof, while more expensive than asphalt shingling, has an estimated life span of between 40 and 70 years compared to 15 to 25 years for the shingles, Galante said. He added that the metal roof can better support the solar panels without damage.

Using materials that will only last 20 years falls short of the building committee’s charge of planning for a station design to last at least 50 years, committee member Scott Zenke told the board.

“We’ve got $55 million to work with, the largest project in this town. And it better last over 20 years,” he said.

Michael Herman was the select board’s lone vote against the hybrid clapboard and brick design. He instead favored using all clapboard throughout the new station, calling into question the 100-year estimates attached to the hybrid design.

“As we go another 20 years, things are changing at an exponential pace,” he said. “To think we’re going to have buildings the same in 50 years I don’t think is realistic in this world.”

But others on the board favored the gray clapboard and brick design. While the town might not want a statement building, Mary Wright of the select board said that’s what the station will ultimately be.

“I do think that regardless of the colors, this is a statement building,” she said. “It is going to be a statement building because it is a big building, and because it is the fire department.”

“I don’t want us to put 100 percent clapboard around this building,” added select board member Kevin Galligan. “I like the clap and brick for the environment that we live in, for the longevity that we get.”

Board Chair Mefford Runyon also voiced support for the hybrid gray option, as did the town’s owner’s project manager, Rick Pomeroy, citing the “durability, usefulness and longevity of the brick.”

“There’s ways to make it subtle, but it is still a municipal facility,” he said.

After the meeting, Runyon said that with a vote on the materials, the project moves closer to going out to bid for a contractor. He said ground could be broken on the project in early spring next year.