The Marin County Fire Department Tomales Fire Station provides fire, rescue and EMT services to a large geographically remote area of Western Marin. The existing single company station is undersized, outdated and lacks adequate facilities to support its volunteers and community service needs. The station’s close proximity to Tomales Bay and Dillon Beach and the Pacific Ocean makes it the primary first responder for ocean rescue calls.
The County of Marin engaged RDC Architecture to provide Architecture and Engineering (A/E) services for the Tomales Fire Station replacement project. The project consists of programming, architectural design, construction documents, and public outreach for the design of a new 8,638 GSF one-story replacement fire station. As part of the design services RDC studied the relative cost of utilizing pre-engineered building systems over that of stick built construction and low-impact site planning.
RDC designed three options including 1) a pre-fabricated design-build metal building structure and 2) wood framed site built structure(s) likely wood framed with strategic steel elements as needed; or, 3) a combination of the above. The County selected a simple pre-engineered building as the approved concept. RDC’s design evokes the simple forms and geometry of West Marin’s existing agricultural buildings.
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