Fire Station No. 1 for the City of Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue Service was dedicated on Friday, June 12, 2009 at a ceremony featuring Mayor Walt Maddox. The new, state-of-the-art facility, which combines the previous Fire Station No. 1 and Fire Station No. 5, is centrally located at the corner of 15th Street and Greensboro Avenue. It provides quick emergency response times to downtown neighborhoods and businesses.
A drive-thru Porte Cochere provides “out of the weather drop off”, a secure public entrance and connection to a future Administrative Building. The Station incorporates offices, public restrooms, day community room, workout room, 19 bedrooms with accommodations for males and females, state of the art kitchen and dining area, and a separate Battalion Chief’s area.
The Apparatus Room is readily accessible from all areas and has a large pyramid skylight which floods the area with natural light and views of the evening sky. Specifically designed bi-fold doors open four to five times faster than traditional overhead doors. Directly accessible to the Apparatus Room are laundry, gear and hose storage, and SCBA maintenance with decontamination rooms and oxygen storage rooms located close by.
For durability and ease of cleaning, stained concrete floors are in work and communal spaces, stainless steel countertops are in the kitchen area, and floors and walls are tiled in locker and bathrooms. The exterior of the Station incorporates materials presently used throughout city structures: fiberglass columns, masonry, brick, cast stone, and standing seam metal roofing.
Construction continues this spring on the campus of The University of Alabama. The Ridgecrest South Residential Community is located on the western side of the UA campus, with beautiful views overlooking the Black Warrior River. This project is the fourth residence community that WSV has worked on at UA. The newest complex is adjacent to Ridgecrest North Residential Community, which WSV completed in 2007, and near Lakeside and Riverside Residential Communities, which WSV built in 2006 and 2005, respectively. Ridgecrest South includes a three-story parking deck and two residential towers, and will house over 900 students. Construction for the residence hall is on schedule and students will move in August of 2009.