First responders bravely serve communities responding to emergencies such as fires, search & rescue, roadside accidents, and increasingly emergency medical situations requiring a broad skillset and training. As our state population has grown, urban areas have increased and densified, wildfires have become more commonplace, and emergency medical services have risen dramatically, have all increased the need for highly skilled first responders now more important than ever before. Simulated real-world settings, dedicated spaces for live-fire training evolutions, and extensive skills-based training opportunities best prepare cadets for future success as fire fighters.
Delivering on Bates Technical College mission for Workforce Education, the Fire Service Training Center brings the Fire and EMT training programs up to contemporary standards for safety, instruction, and quality of space while providing students a state-of-the-art facility for advanced training. This facility will expand student enrollment, degree offerings, NFPA certifications, and also become a resource for working professionals seeking continuing education and training. This relationship between academia and professionals is mutually beneficial providing a talent pool for fire departments to hire graduates and a resource for professionals to complete advanced training forging strong bonds within the firefighter community. This relationship elevates Bates standing in the community, strengthens ties, and further builds on their reputation for excellence.
A progressive design build project, MillerHull teamed with BNBuilders and MWStudios to create a holistic approach focusing on the needs of the NFPA fire training core curriculum for FireFighter 1 certification as well as other advanced certifications. This led to creating flexible drill yard areas, dedicated live-fire training structure, simulated apparatus & fire station areas, as well as traditional higher education curriculum spaces. Of particular importance is the live-fire training structure, unique amongst technical colleges in the region, that will provide simulated training scenarios using Class B live-fire props as well as search & rescue maze panels, entanglement training, and fire fighter challenge drills scope that include residential as well as commercial spaces students will encounter during their careers as firefighters. In addition, the new facility provides dedicated EMT training classroom, simulation lab, and ambulance simulator to meet the demand from working professionals that rely upon Bates for highly sought after continuing education programs. This combination of traditional higher education spaces and simulated fire training and drill yard areas will create a distinct and unparalleled facility for technical colleges and make Bates a leader in the education field.
In addition to exceeding the curriculum needs of the project, MillerHull has exceeded the requirements set in the Bates Sustainability Action Plan goals to reduce operational carbon emissions. The project received a highly competitive Washington State Department of Commerce Decarbonization Grant, one of only 71 across the state, to provide a large scale 265kW photovoltaic array. This grant was made possible by the Washington State Climate Commitment Ac that supports climate action efforts by putting cap-and-trade investment dollars to work reducing climate pollution, creating jobs, and improving public health. With the addition of this grant, the project is now on track to be Net Zero Energy. The project will be the first all-electric facility on campus and will become a template for future development at Bates. In addition to operational carbon, the project has also targeted reductions in embodied carbon of materials used in construction. These combined measures, as well as others, have positioned the project to achieve a targeted LEED Gold certification also exceeding project requirements and will set a new standard for Bates campus facilities for architectural design.
Elevating the discourse of firefighting education, strengthening ties between academia and professionals, providing state of the art purpose built facilities, and exceeding expectations for sustainability all culminate in a major addition to the Bates Technical College campus and better prepare the next generation of first responders in their future careers.
Architect: The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP
Associate Architect: MW Studios
Contractor: BNBuilders
Land Use Planner: LDC Inc.
Traffic Planner: Heffron Transportation, Inc.
Civil Engineer: Ethos Civil Engineering
Structural Engineer: PCS Structural Solutions
Mechanical & Plumbing Engineer: P2S Inc.
Electrical & Lighting: Tres West Engineering
Landscape Architect: Site Workshop
Commissioning – Performance Validation
Geotechnical – GeoEngineers
Acoustic Engineer – Tenor Engineering
Envelope Consultant – Stantec
Signage – Mayer Reed