How Samaha Architects used daylight to create an incredible occupant experience at Manassas’ Fire Station #21
The City of Manassas, Virginia, chose Samaha Architects to design a new 21,916 square foot, four bay fire station. This new fire station, known as Manassas Fire Station #21, would be a multi-use facility, not only housing fire and rescue personnel but also functioning as a training facility. This project was very important to the community, as it was the first new fire station to open within the city limits in 51 years and would enable fire and rescue to meet the critical 2-minute response time for the community.
Ken Cahoon, an architect at Samaha Architects, set out to create a comfortable living and working environment for firefighters. He envisioned large amounts of natural daylight in communal spaces, but was mindful that it is essential to avoid the glare and overheating that occur when using vision glass alone to deliver natural daylight. He also realized that he needed to address a number of other issues that were required by their sustainability mandate driven by their clients desire to achieve LEED certification.
The first challenge that he had to address was selecting a daylighting solution that could eliminate glare and overheating. Cahoon looked at a number of different solutions, before choosing Solera translucent glazing units, which are engineered to provide near-perfect light diffusion that converts harsh direct beam sunlight into gentle bright clean diffuse daylight, and evenly distributes it throughout the space. He recalled that attended Advanced Glazings Ltd.’s continuing education course held at his firm on Architectural Daylighting and Managing Glare. “The Solera product is really cool and we wanted to use a daylighting solution that was translucent and could provide more than only natural daylight, but also aid in the building’s heat gain coefficient contributing to a LEED certification and the sustainability of this building” says Cahoon.
Another design challenge was the client’s need for privacy for firefighting training. In addition to its inherent value to trainees and trainers, this also contributed to enhanced safety by eliminating outside distractions. Views to the exterior were not essential for this section of the building.
“Solera performed exceptionally well in this space. We placed Solera above the apparatus bay for daylighting in this active space, in addition to the tower. The tower lights up at night and provides a beautiful glowing lantern effect creating a recognizable space for the community” says Cahoon. Having natural daylight in the main apparatus bay was especially important for the rescue team to have the benefits of daylight while working and training in this active space.
Additionally, Samaha Architects wanted to provide natural daylight inside the tower with an element of privacy for firefighting training. This was to ensure safety when using the stairs by eliminating outside distractions, in addition to glare and hot spots from sunlight. Views to the exterior weren’t a requirement for this section of the building as the main goal for the stairwell was to combine natural daylight and privacy for the fire and rescue team.
Construction of the new station began in the Fall of 2019 and completed the project in the Spring of 2021. The ribbon cutting ceremony was held in May of 2021.
The Manassas Fire Hall was an exciting project not just for Samaha Architects, but also the entire Manassas community. According to Cahoon, “they love the new building and space. The municipality experienced a lot of curiosity with respect to this design and several jurisdictions are coming to the station to view the design in person.”
Advanced Glazings Ltd. is proud of have worked with Samaha Architects on this important project and to help contribute natural daylighting to the work and living space of emergency personnel team at Fire Station 21. Congratulations to Samaha Architects and the City of Manassas on this wonderful addition to your community.
