The new Fireboat Station No. 35 at Pier 22 ½ in San Francisco is a two-story, 32,000-sq.-ft. fire department station extending into the bay from the existing fireboat house. Here, the project’s critical goal was to ensure sustainability and resilience. The building is a barge that floats on the water, supporting marine fire station duties. It will rise and fall with the tides and climate-related sea-level changes, offering easy boat access to first responders. A dock, wet gear, and a scuba room are on the first floor, along with parking space for fire engines. The second floor is the living space, with dorms and locker rooms, three separate smaller rooms for officers, a library, kitchen, pantry, and a day room, as well as an observation deck facing the water. Coordinating the overhead and elevations with the drive areas was one of the tough challenges because the heavy-duty doors and fire engines required so much space. But thanks to our expertise in BIM & VDC, we could address all the challenges effectively.
VEC experts worked on the San Francisco Fire Department Station No. 35 in 2020. The scope of our involvement in this project included lighting, power, fire alarm (FA), telecom, security, audiovisual modeling and fuel/oil/electric for one of the contractors, McMillan Electric. Our team provided Trimble and shop drawings for the barge (underground), first floor, second floor, and roof levels. Meanwhile, the shop drawings we supplied covered overhead supports, conduit routing, reflected ceiling plans, and equipment layouts. Using Revit, VEC specialists created all the necessary 3D models to ensure better construction coordination between the involved stakeholders, including Swinerton as the general contractor.
