Colora Paramedic Station
The New Colora EMS Station is a 6,500 SF facility which will be utilized as a prototype for all future EMS stations located in Cecil County, Maryland. We were tasked with designing a facility with an extremely restrictive budget. The tight budget was derived from poor economic conditions and the dire need to replace the existing station. The design was also required to be flexible enough to allow for improvements in material quality and expansion in size in future stations to be located elsewhere in the county.
The default prototype, first constructed in rural Colora, Maryland consists of an engineered, wood framed two-story operations area and a conventionally steel framed apparatus bay. The station provides space for 5 pieces of apparatus and an abundance of storage for medical supplies. The first floor contains a room specifically designed for report writing, a captain’s office, along with locker and shower facilities. The second floor includes additional office space as well as a small kitchen and living/day room. Offices on the second floor were built with rated construction to allow conversion to bunk rooms at a later date. Lack of public water led to the installation of an innovative fine-mist sprinkler system which eliminated the necessity to provide a large volume holding tank which would have required heating during winter months.
