New Fire/Medical admin building design debuts

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Perlman Architects designed the planned administration building for the Maricopa Fire/Medical Department.

It been a decade in the works, but the construction of a new Maricopa Fire/Medical Department administration building has finally arrived.

The new building is colorful, bright, big and inspired by the community it will serve.

Rodolfo Lopez, Maricopa senior planner, told members of the Heritage District Advisory Committee Thursday evening they were there to vote on the elevation proposal for the facility. The proposed building will be south of Fire Station 575, which is on the west end of Edison Road.

“Our main criteria for reviewing this is to make sure that the elevation incorporates the colors, materials and the type of elements within the building,” Lopez said.

The committee gets early looks at developments coming into the Heritage District, which comprises a specific area of “old” Maricopa.

Gerrald Adams, with Perlman Architects of Arizona in Phoenix, told the committee the project is part of the campus with the fleet building and the fire station. The new admin building is budgeted at $5.6 million, paid for in part by funds from Arizona Department of Transportation after the state purchased the previous admin site on State Route 347 at Garvey Avenue to build the overpass. Fire/Medical Department personnel currently work out of modular buildings on the north side of Edison across from Fire State 575.

Adams showed a PowerPoint presentation detailing the new site plan, architecture, floor plan and landscaping, and presented detailed information about the building’s elevation due to it being in a flood plain.

The site will also include a memorial to firefighters, according to Adams.

“The public can enjoy the experience at the same time they are coming to visit the fire station and the fire admin facility. It is a general office. It is offices for senior staff and leadership. It has a community room, training room, break area, an outdoor courtyard and a warehouse,” he said.

The historic look of the building mattered to Adams and to fire department leaders.

“One thing we were challenged with is to respect the railroad and the history of Maricopa. We looked at the original Maricopa depot from the 1920s and ’30s and incorporated that using modern materials like those used on the fire station. It is a tribute to the railroad days of the roundhouse and the railroad days in Maricopa,” Adams said.

Adams said hopes are that construction can begin on the building in June or sometime in the summer and that it would be completed in six to eight months.

Members of the Heritage District Advisory Committee approved the plan for the new administration building 4-0 with two of the six committee members not present.

Gerrald Adams presents concepts to the City’s Heritage District Advisory Committee. Photo by Jim Headley