Cambridge Fire Station Headquarters Breaks Ground
The long-awaited renovation, restoration and retrofit of the Cambridge Fire Headquarters finally broke ground in a joyous ceremony on Tuesday, October 8. A regiment of shiny chrome shovels gleamed in the sun as a chorus line of VIPs, including Mayor Denise Simmons, Acting Fire Chief Thomas Cahill, W.T. Rich president Brian Santos and project architect Ted Galante, dug them into a mound of dirt and flung it forward with the festivity of a mortarboard toss at a Harvard commencement.
“The Cambridge Fire Headquarters has been the cornerstone of public safety in the community for nearly a century,” said Simmons before the groundbreaking. “It’s the nerve center of our fire department, so it’s been crucial to get this right. As we break ground today, we’re not just beginning construction, but paving the way for the future.”
Indeed, the groundbreaking marked a commencement of another kind: the beginning of the fulfillment of Galante’s vision to transform the 92-year-old Georgian Revival landmark into the city’s first Net Zero Emissions fire station, which his Cantabrigian roots drove him to do. “I’m from Cambridge,” he said plainly. “I’ve raised my kids here. So when this project came out for designer selection, I said, ‘We have to get this project.’”
The Galante Architecture Studio (TGAS) got more than the average station renovation. The Cambridge Fire Headquarters has been named a Class 1 firehouse, the highest possible designation for an American fire department. “It’s a classification only a few fire departments have in this country,” said Cahill. “The new technology and infrastructure will provide the best fire services and emergency medical services.”
The renovated station will be a net zero emissions building powered by an electrical substation. Geothermal wells that extract heat from the ground will provide heating and cooling. Photovoltaic solar panels that generate renewable energy from the sun will fulfill a portion of the building’s electrical needs. In addition, two electric vehicle (EV) charging stations will be installed on site, and EV charging stations for future hybrid electric firefighting vehicles will be placed in the building.
“All of this sets an example of sustainability,” said Galante, a recognized expert in public safety in police and fire stations who frequently speaks at conferences on these themes. “It changes the game.”
Another game-changer afoot in the station will be an advanced decontamination system. This will eliminate carcinogen transfer from the apparatus floor to the firefighters’ living quarters, ensuring them a healthy work/sleep environment. Complementing this will be gender-neutral dorm rooms, open and communicative living quarters, and a new fitness center.
“This is a significant milestone for the City of Cambridge, which enhances the ability to protect the city,” said Galante. “The new headquarters will provide them with the tools and training to make sure we stay on schedule and budget and provide safety for firefighters.”
Getting the Cambridge Fire Headquarters to that point of progress involved a controlled demolition that unraveled the historic layer to expose, in some instances, the building to its bones, such as unveiling the steel trusses as part of the second-floor renovation plan. This exposure was a process of discovering what the headquarters required to meet the city’s LEED Gold V.4 sustainability standards with a much-reduced carbon footprint.
“As we dug into this building, we realized actual needs, because at first the renovation didn’t fully encompass what was required to meet city standards, so a full renovation was necessary,” said Brendon Roy, Director of the Capital Building Projects Department for the City of Cambridge. “We realized the needs of the Fire Department above simple renovation and paint.”
Landlocked within the Harvard campus by the convergent fork of Broadway and Cambridge Street on a triangular island strewn with construction paraphernalia and walled in with jersey barriers and chain-link fencing, the station still has a way to go before its ribbon-cutting, targeted for 2026.
While the construction is going on, the Engine 1, Ladder 1, Rescue 1 and Dive Rescue Unit firetrucks have found a temporary home at 15 Hovey Street, courtesy of a surplus parking area donated by Spaulding Hospital. Also designed by TGAS and assembled on site by the Canada-based Extreme Modular Buildings (EMB), Station 10 is another first for Cambridge: the first example of the use of modular building technology to erect a fire station in the city, not to mention the first fully operational modular fire station EMB has installed in the United States. “People are amazed at the temporary facilities, the way the Fire Department is housed safely, which will serve as a model for this [headquarters] building,” Galante said.
