Design team outlines multiple station layouts; direct Mass Avenue access could add millions in site work

The Boxboro Fire Station Building Committee reviewed multiple conceptual site and building options and directed the design team to narrow the field to two schemes for deeper study: a preferred one-story plan that keeps firefighter living quarters contiguous with administrative space, and a two-story alternative.

Architect Chris led a presentation showing options that place the apparatus bay either facing Sarah’s Way (minimizing heavy earthwork) or oriented to exit directly onto Mass Avenue. For a direct Mass Avenue entrance the engineers found that the design would need to set the building back roughly 120 feet, put in berms and segmented retaining walls (in places retaining about 12 feet of fill), regrade drainage and potentially relocate proposed well sites. The design team reported an early “ballpark” low-range site-cost estimate of about $3 million for excavation and related work; the high end could be “double” that estimate depending on subsurface conditions, the team said.

Committee members and the fire chief discussed operational tradeoffs. The chief favored layouts that minimize the time firefighters need to get from living or administrative spaces to apparatus bays. Members also highlighted aesthetic and maintenance tradeoffs between pitched and flat roofs: pitched roofs were favored by some for aesthetic and snow/drainage reasons, while flat roofs were noted for PV flexibility and rooftop equipment placement.

The committee asked the design team to focus next on: (1) retaining two preferred options (one- and two-story), (2) producing tighter cost estimates and energy-modeling data, (3) coordinating targeted borings/test pits for subsurface information, and (4) preparing materials for a public design-progress event on July 23. The team will post drawings in advance of the next meeting and organize small site visits for committee subgroups before purchase completion.