Preserving A Vital Community Resource

Portland’s largest fire station is 55 years old and sits on nearly 20 feet of moist soft soil, a serious danger in the event of an earthquake. When city officials originally planned to build a new fire station and administrative headquarters a couple of blocks north of this station, they ran into severe budget limitations. Revamping and strengthening Fire Station 1 became the city’s goal, but many of the original construction documents no longer exist. We are currently running tests on materials to assess the building’s condition and make the most appropriate decisions on a rehabilitation scheme. When the new design and retrofit are complete, the home to 16 emergency-response personnel and 68 administrators will meet immediate occupancy performance objectives. We have evaluated the seismic strength of 28 of the city’s fire stations and retrofitted eleven of them. This station is unique in that it responds to at least 6,000 emergencies a year and has not had any major upgrades since it was built in 1952. We will brace the 54,000 square-foot building so it’s emergency ready after a major earthquake. Working closely with the architect, we are maintaining the historic look of the building. The project construction is expected to start in January 2008 and be complete at the beginning of 2009.