Engine 160

The site is located on the eastern side of Staten Island adjacent to the Staten Island Expressway and close to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The site itself is an empty lot across from the existing firehouse surrounded by streets of varying traffic densities.

The building is designed as a large shed – a simple volume with a straightforward approach to the building systems. The steel frame structure has a 16ft clearance that allows for the special vehicle exhaust system and mechanical and electrical equipment to be suspended from above while maintaining the required vehicle clearances. The walls of the building are concrete block with a perforated metal screen as the exterior finish material. The screen wall is designed to take advantage of the large amount of daylight the site receives – casting shadows onto the wall behind it and using the sun to dematerialize the screen so that the letters “FDNY” are legible to the surrounding context. The pattern of the screen wall varies in its opacity and openness as it moves around the building, becoming more open at the location of the clerestory windows and the views inside the apparatus floor on the south side of the building. The approach to the site plan includes surrounding the site with a perforated metal fence similar to the screen wall of the building to create a visual coherence to the entire site.