Demolition crews took down the century-old building Thursday. (Mike Platania photo)
The city’s oldest firehouse is on its way to becoming its newest.
Demolition started Thursday on Fire Station 12, a century-old building at Cary and Addison streets that’s being replaced with a new three-story structure.
The $13 million project has been in the works for over two years. Plans were approved in 2021, and a contract was awarded last year to Hopewell-based construction firm J.W. Enochs, which is also performing the demolition. The construction cost is estimated at $8.7 million, according to a project summary on the City of Richmond’s website.
Fire Station 12, pre-demo last week. (Jonathan Spiers photo)
At 13,400 square feet, the new building at 2223 W. Cary St. will be twice the size of its 6,300-square-foot predecessor, which was built in 1908. It has been recognized as the oldest firehouse still operating in Richmond.
The new building, designed by Moseley Architects, will include two fire truck bays and a smaller third bay. The building also will feature a mezzanine between the first and second stories and be able to accommodate as many as 109 people.
A rendering of the new Fire Station 12 to be built on the site. (City documents)
The station also will include a dayroom and fitness room, individual sleeping quarters, and restrooms and showers. Other features include a community room for activities and meetings. The building will be designed to minimum LEED Silver certification standards. Its exterior will also include an art feature.
Fire Station 12’s replacement is one of several planned by the city. Richmond’s proposed five-year Capital Improvement Plan includes $15 million to replace Fire Station 21 at 2505 Richmond Highway.
Demolition crews took down the century-old building Thursday. (Mike Platania photo)
The city’s oldest firehouse is on its way to becoming its newest.
Demolition started Thursday on Fire Station 12, a century-old building at Cary and Addison streets that’s being replaced with a new three-story structure.
The $13 million project has been in the works for over two years. Plans were approved in 2021, and a contract was awarded last year to Hopewell-based construction firm J.W. Enochs, which is also performing the demolition. The construction cost is estimated at $8.7 million, according to a project summary on the City of Richmond’s website.
Fire Station 12, pre-demo last week. (Jonathan Spiers photo)
At 13,400 square feet, the new building at 2223 W. Cary St. will be twice the size of its 6,300-square-foot predecessor, which was built in 1908. It has been recognized as the oldest firehouse still operating in Richmond.
The new building, designed by Moseley Architects, will include two fire truck bays and a smaller third bay. The building also will feature a mezzanine between the first and second stories and be able to accommodate as many as 109 people.
A rendering of the new Fire Station 12 to be built on the site. (City documents)
The station also will include a dayroom and fitness room, individual sleeping quarters, and restrooms and showers. Other features include a community room for activities and meetings. The building will be designed to minimum LEED Silver certification standards. Its exterior will also include an art feature.
Fire Station 12’s replacement is one of several planned by the city. Richmond’s proposed five-year Capital Improvement Plan includes $15 million to replace Fire Station 21 at 2505 Richmond Highway.
Approximately $1000 square foot? That is ridiculous. This is the reason taxpayers should be incensed about anything our moronic leadership does.
The construction cost is $8.7M for 13,400 sf which equals $650 per square foot for construction which is not unusual these days for an urban site with no lay down area. Being a fire station, there is likely a bunch of specialized equipment that is not cheap that makes up the rest of the project budget. Construction inflation is real and is not unique to a Richmond city project
Well the article also says the project is $13 million which makes my original posting accurate. I realize journalism isn’t about facts anymore, but this is posted as fact. I suspect you work in construction and I see these projects as an opportunity to milk the taxpayers. It is basically a 3 car garage with a house. I stand by my original statement.
The delta between the construction cost and the total project cost is soft costa which include the architect’s fees, furniture, equipment, geotechnical borings, asbestos abatement, etc. Given the current construction market, these costs are not unusual and not due to any incompetence or mismanagement by the city.
“It is basically a 3 car garage with a house.” lol, truth! – thank you for the laugh!
WTH? What is up with the open space on the NW corner? So space in the Fan is at such a premium, and $ per sq ft. is expense, but the city has designed a “LEEDS” atrium on a fire station? And if you are building from the ground up – why not expand the number of truck bays? I hope this does not add to the runoff problem this area already has. It looks beautiful – I will give them that – but do I trust the city to REALLY upgrade the utilities around there while they are in… Read more »
Anyone who has read more than 3 of my comments knows that I think that, in cities, it is just fine to tear down an old bldg to put up a better bldg. That is how cities don’t stagnate — welcome to the 19th century, Virginia. Yet, while this bldg is clearly better by some measures, as some people below point out, they manage to still “stupid it up” enough to make it obvious that there are some ideology Over intelligence people at the helm of the the decision making ships around here. That art thing looks stupid NOW, who… Read more »
preach on!
Thank you Victoria. What I find funny is that your response got the net negative votes — I have two theories — 1. Enough people agreed with my annoyance, even contempt, that they canceled out the people who just pretend to like anything that resembles “Art” or “ESG” (they really need to take the “G” out of ESG since the E and the S often mean that the governance is going to go to hell) and they didn’t get to your comment or — 2. They may agree with me here, but they do want me to shut up a… Read more »
We loose the history/story and character of our city each time an old/historic/vintage building is torn down. It was a shame to loose several of the notable mid-century modern buildings on Broad Street near Westwood. It seems the goal is for all the buildings to become of similar vernacular!
In the case of this particular building, it is likely a combination of the need to accommodate modern firefighting equipment (a new truck is considerably larger than a horse-drawn carriage) and amenities for the firefighters.
Yeah, I think you are correct. The only way to improve the situation would be if they had land enough, or tore down something small or ugly enough elsewhere — old fire stations are pretty cool adaptive reuse projects — I remember the first time I saw one done, I think in the early 1990s and I was pretty envious — they of course kept the original brass Bat Pole!