T FIRE-HOUSE AND TOWN HALL, LARCHMONT, N. Y. Fire-Houses Need Not Be Eyesores HE increasing attention given to the matter of making public buildings in cities pleasing from the standpoint of good architecture, finds expression in the treatment of fire-houses as well as of buildings of more general character or esthetic purpose, such as city halls, court-houses, auditoriums and memorials. Until recent years the fire-house has been greatly neglected architecturally, and has usually been a bare brick structure distinguished on the outside chiefly by wide doorways for apparatus, on the inside by gleaming poles for sliding to the ground floor, and otherwise notable for the occasional insistent clamor of the fire-gong. tecture. Many fire-stations being in residential districts, they have gradually been affected by the improvement in style of domestic archiThe bungalow type of station and others lending themselves to a variety of pleasing designs blending with a residential setting, are now to be found in many cities. The Architectural Forum has devoted two recent numbers to public buildings; the one in June, besides treating of city halls, courthouses and capitols, contained illustrations of seventeen fire-department buildings of distinctive appearance, together with the plans for some of them. Photographs of five of these, for which and for some of the accompanying descriptive matter THE AMERICAN CITY is indebted to The Architectural Forum, are re produced herewith, with the addition of firehouses in Oakland, Calif., and White Plains, N. Y. Fire-House and Municipal Building Combined The village of Larchmont, N. Y., constructed a Municipal Building of striking appearance in 1922, at the corner of Larchmont Avenue and the Boston Post Road, which houses all departments, including fire and police. The photograph reproduced herewith shows the entrance to the apparatus room of the Fire Department and also the main hallway that leads to the administrative offices; it is the eastern elevation. The building is of brick trimmed with stone and has a variegated slate roof. Police headquarters are around to the right, on the north. The Chiefs of Fire and Police have offices on the ground floor, upon which there are also a large police room, a detention room, three cells for prisoners, washrooms, and lounge, workroom and storeroom for the Fire Department, adjoining the apparatus room. The second floor includes a trustees' room, a fair-sized public meeting-room, several smaller rooms for club or office purposes, and a sleepingroom. There are also wash rooms, a kitchenette, and a vault. The architect was Frank A. Moore. Fire-House and Auditorium Combined- An auditorium seating about 400 people occupies the second floor of a fire-house recently erected in Mamaroneck, N. Y., fronting on Weaver Street. As this station is served by a volunteer company, living-quarters that might otherwise be situated on this floor are dispensed with, excepting two bedrooms, placed in a wing. The building is done in the early American style, and is distinguished by simplicity and dignity. It is built of local stone, with somewhat varying colors, and warm-toned mortar is used. The exterior woodwork, including a cupola or belfry, is painted a light cream. There is a copper roof with standing seams. The basement contains the club-room for the volunteers, together with billiard-room and bowling-alley, and the heating plant for the building. The surrounding ground has been graded down to the basement windowsills, giving an outlook to the lawn. The first floor has the apparatus room, with the office, kitchen and firemen's reception rooms around it. The entrance for the auditorium is through a paneled hall at one side of the apparatus room, in one of the wings. A secondary entrance is through the other wing to the front of the building. The auditorium has a stage and dressingroom, and receives daylight through eleven large arched windows. Rest rooms for men and women are provided in the left wing. The architects for the building were Charles F. Mink and Otto R. Eggers. A Fire-House on a Hillside-Oakland, Calif. A new idea in fire-house construction has been put into execution in Oakland in a high-value residential district. The problem was to build an attractive fire-house on a side hill, or terraced lot, in such way as to improve the surrounding property and give the maximum of efficiency to the apparatus and comfort to the men. Dormitory and living quarters for a double company are placed in the building on the high end of the lot, approach being by a flight of steps following the contour of the land. The apparatus room is on a level with the street. The building is unique, also, in that certain new types of building construction were applied. Generally speaking, the specifications are as follows: precast, reenforced frame, sides and roof, lined with Celotex cast with the slabs; roof made by painting waterproof plastic asbestos cement direct on to concrete; furnishings-standard wall beds and "Roll-about" bed for man on watch; electrically equipped. The contract price, with extras, was $18,900. Grading, painting, paving and furnishings bring the total cost to $22,826, a rather high price be Photograph by Drix Duryea VERMILYEA AVENUE FIRE-STATION, NEW YORK cause of necessary excavations and concrete retaining walls; it might vary according to location, cost of labor, etc. The photograph gives a good general idea of the outside appearance of the house. The lot will be landscaped and beautified. FRANK COLBOURN, Commissioner of Public Works. A Metropolitan Fire-Station in a Small SpaceVermilyea Avenue, New York Occupying a ground area of slightly over 40 by 80 feet, on a 50-foot lot, the Vermilyea Avenue station of the New York Fire Department, in the northern part of Manhattan Island, is built in three stories. The apparatus room occupies the entire ground floor. A FIRE-HOUSE ON A SIDE HILL, OAKLAND, CALIF. The second floor contains the offices, with separate rooms for captain and lieutenant; about twothirds of the floor space is given over to the dormitory and washroom facilities for the men. The third floor, which is about 18 feet shorter than the others, is entirely devoted to a recreation room for the firemen. Several poles are proIvided for quick descent to the apparatus room. The building is of brick and stone, of simple and dignified design relieved by several pleasing details as to the doorways, windows and cornice. As no planting of trees, shrubbery or grass was possible, a vine has been trained across the face of the building. This station houses Engine Company 95 and Hook and Ladder Company 36. The architects were Dennison & Hirons. Fire, Police, and Township Headquarters Combined-Millburn, N. J. For several years the township of Millburn, N. J., has been using a very attractive building designed by Horatio W. Olcott, architect, as a combined headquarters for the Police and Fire Departments and the township offices. It is a two-story structure of reddish brick, of colonial type of design. Three sets of double doors from the middle of the street side of the building form the entrance to the apparatus room of the Fire Department. Here are accommodated two 1,000-gallon pumpers, one hook and ladder truck, and one combined chemical and hose truck. The Chief's car is also housed here. The first floor contains in addition the Chief's office, the repair shop, the battery room, a dormitory with six beds, and washrooms with showers, a motor room containing an aircompressor for operating the fire-whistle, and another compressor for the tire pump. The Fire Department includes the Chief, Deputy Chief, 6 paid firemen and 36 volunteers. On the first floor of the building are also Police Headquarters, the Police Chief's office, the Recorder's Court, and five cells. The second floor contains an assembly room and the offices of the members of the Township Committee, the Clerk, the Collector of Taxes, the Assessor, the Building Inspector, Supervisor of Public Works, Township Engineer, and Board of Health. There are also two vaults on this floor, besides a recreation A Central Fire Station of Octagonal ShapeArlington, Mass. An imposing brick structure situated in a triangular plot in Arlington Center, the central firestation in this city, as described in Fire Engineering shortly after its completion in the spring of last year, presents some unusual ideas in firehouse design. For example, there are six large double doors on the apparatus floor so that the machines can be driven in from any side, requiring no backing up when entering the building. The station is two stories high, with an 83-foot tower, and is built of steel and concrete with a brick exterior trimmed with stone. The basement, with an inclined entrance, accommodates the wire division, the repair shop and the heating-plant, and just outside it are two rooms utilized as convenience stations, one for men and one for women, with direct access from the street. The apparatus floor is a large open space without pillars or other encumbrances, and is large enough for eight pieces of motor apparatus. The floor is of concrete and the walls of glazed brick for seven feet up, above which is white sanded brick. At the base of the tower is a stone-trimmed watch-room containing the patrol desk, gongs, push-buttons and mutual-aid signal board, for connection with the fire-alarm headquarters of six adjoining municipalities. There is an arrangement for mutual aid at alarms near the border lines of the towns and for response and covering-in at general alarms. The second floor contains the living-quarters for officers and men. At the front is the common room, with large open stone fireplace, pool table, Victrola and radio set. Opening off this room is the private office of Chief Daniel B. Tierney, which connects with his bedroom and bath. Grouped around a central patio lighted by a skylight are a series of connecting rooms with Photograph by Paul J. Weber THE OCTAGONAL CENTRAL FIRE-STATION, ARLINGTON, MASS. two or three beds each. Separate rooms are provided for the officers and for two men of the wire division. Shower-baths, toilets and adequate lockers are included in the general arrangements. In the patio are sink, ice-box, small gas range, bubbler drinking fountain, seats and benches. The tower contains space for drying hose, a compressedair siren and a bell. On one side of the main structure and connecting with it through fire-resisting doors is a separate section for the fire-alarm equipment. The battery room is on the first floor; above is the room containing the signal equipment, also the office and the bedroom of the Superintendent of Fire Alarms, William Mason. The cost of the building was $152,000, exclusive of $46,000 for land. The architect was George Ernest Robinson. Headquarters Fire-House in a Residential District-White Plains, N. Y. The Fire Department in this city being in a transitory stage at the time that a new main firehouse was called for, the problem confronting the officials and the architect, Randell Henderson, of White Plains, was to house the department headquarters and accommodate two companies of active volunteers. The Department would eventually consist of paid men only, so that most of the space given to the volunteers would in time be turned over to the paid Department. The building is a rectangle 60 x 80 feet with an attached wing 16 x 62 feet. The exterior treatment is black brick relieved by natural cement joints and terra cotta trim, with a mottled green tile roof. Fireproof construction is used entirely: brick walls, reinforced concrete floors, roof supported by gypsum bar and steel construction. The building has three floors and basement, with all lavatories having tile walls to ceilings, and connecting hallways with a colored tile wainscot. The basement of the building is planned for Each com the perpetual use of the volunteers. pany receives a lounge room 28 x 34 feet, with walls of imitation travertine, and tile fireplace. The floors, as throughout the building, with the exception of the apparatus floor, are composition. The basement is provided with a dining-room and a kitchen, to be used by the Department as a whole. The necessary lavatory and showers for the volunteers are included in the basement. A boiler-room with vapor vacuum heating-plant, oil burner and clothes drier completes the basement layout. The main portion of the first floor is used for housing the apparatus and has a clear span of 57 x 77 feet. The wing on this floor is divided into rest room, desk room, entrance hall, machine room and lavatory. Opening off the apparatus floor are closets for oils, gasoline, acids, etc. The sliding-poles are inclosed in towers on both sides of the apparatus room, leaving it unencumbered. The apparatus floor is of paving brick on a sand cushion. The walls of the entire first floor, excepting the entrance hall, are of salt-glazed brick. The second floor consists mainly of sleepingquarters. The Fire Chief and Captain each have a bedroom and bath. In addition, the Chief has a business office. Across the front of the building is located the dormitory, 27 x 52 feet, connected to the locker-room and lavatory. Across the rear of the building the volunteers have a reception room with an open fireplace. This space will be used later as an additional dormitory. The third floor is given over entirely to the firealarm system, including switchboard room, battery room and generator room, besides living-quarters for the operator of the system. The building cost about $155,000. It is located on a corner plot in a residential section, which necessitated a design and setback to conform with existing residences. Consequently, the building is situated in the center of a grass plot landscaped with old trees and shrubs. FREDERICK C. MCLAUGHLIN, Mayor. |