One floor or two? That is one of many questions that public safety officials need to ask themselves when constructing or renovating a station. And there are numerous factors these officials need to consider before making a well-informed decision.

Many station owners mistakenly believe that the Americans with Disabilities Act does not apply to public safety facilities, or at least to the living quarters of public safety facilities. ADA applies to all public buildings, including fire/EMS stations. A local building inspector might have allowed a station to be built without or only partially following ADA guidelines; however, the Department of Justice can hold building owners liable for ADA violations.

So how does the ADA's application affect the discussion of multistory stations? Primarily, it results in the need for elevators and accessible stairways. Officials must assume that any department member or visitor can be temporarily or permanently disabled. Disabled persons can't be separated from activity areas by providing similar areas on the ground floor.

At least one municipality has selected the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards Guidelines to avoid many of the accessibility obligations under Title II of the ADA. UFAS excludes the non-public areas of a fire station for accessibility requirements. The problem is that the state building code in that same state has ADA design guidelines incorporated into them. Every project is required to meet the most stringent of all applicable codes or guidelines. Therefore, the municipality is in violation of the state building code in its attempt to avoid the ADA design guidelines.

ADA is a federal law that is required in every local jurisdiction. However, other than being combined with required building codes, the most common means of ADA enforcement is a lawsuit filed by anyone who discovers the ADA non-compliance.

Still, multistory stations are common, and with reason. The earliest fire stations were built in very crowded cities and on very small pieces of property. Because of this, the only choice was to build up instead of out. Departments housed firefighting equipment on the ground floor and sleeping quarters overhead, creating the long history of the fire pole. The same scenario occurs today.

Restrictive watershed guidelines also can prompt the need for multistory stations. For one department, its existing building needed to be doubled in size to meet program needs. However, the department already exceeded the maximum impervious surface restrictions with the existing structure. Without affordable property within the jurisdiction, the only solution was to demolish the existing 1-story station and build a 2-story station with an identical footprint.

Some rural sites are so steep that filling the needed area in one elevation would be cost prohibitive. In this case, a smaller area of the available property can be leveled to build a multistory station that would possibly be less expensive than a single-story facility.

If a department wants to use an existing, multistory building for the station, the upper floors may need to be renovated to house programmed space or it may need to add a multistory addition to an existing building because of a lack of usable property. Recent construction of new headquarters station in Texas used the 3-story shell of an historic masonry structure to upfit the shell into a 2-story station.

Often, the station owner wants to respond to adjacent buildings or achieve a “design look” that requires an unusually tall structure. This only makes sense if the tall structure can accommodate usable space.

As expensive as it may be, other owners want to build a multistory station for nostalgia's sake. This reflects back to the history of those early urban stations. Some have the insatiable need to slide down a fire pole when the alarm sounds, despite the costs.

If station owners and designers want to pursue LEED certification or one of the other green-building processes, building multistory may be of benefit. For instance, there is a LEED sustainable site credit for reduced site disturbance. One way to accomplish this is to build a multistory station instead of spreading out across the site.

Thermal envelope insulation and HVAC efficiencies also will benefit from the same size building built multistory versus single story.

Mechanical or storage mezzanines don't constitute a multistory station. Only occupied space falls under the definition. Also, some stations have floor levels that may step just a few feet from one occupied building area to another. As long as occupied spaces aren't stacked, the building is still one story.

Still, there are reasons to build single-story stations, the most important of which is cost. Except for a couple of the previously stated scenarios, it is almost always less expensive to build out than to build up. There are several reasons for this.

The first item affecting the cost is ADA. The cost of an elevator for two floors is usually between $50,000 and $80,000. On top of the cost are the additional space requirements. Remote stairways will occupy approximately 800 square feet. The elevator and equipment room will occupy another 200 square feet. That additional 1,000 square feet at an estimated $200 per square foot is $200,000. A department could spend more than $250,000 just to get up and down in the building. This expense would not be necessary on a single-story station.

The second item affecting cost is required fire separations. The major fire separation for a 1-story station is the single wall that separates vehicles from occupied spaces. If a design has occupied spaces above the apparatus bays, fire separation between floors will be needed, and vertical fire separations are expensive.

Multiple floors usually require duplication of some spaces such as toilets, janitors closets and more. Many 2-story stations have showers on the top floor with living spaces. But firefighters then have to come back from a call and track dirt and soot through two floors of the building to get to the shower.

There are certainly several legitimate reasons to build a multistory station, but understand the reasons behind that decision. However, if cost is the single-largest factor in a selection, a single-story station is likely the best choice.

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Ken Newell, AIA, LEED AP, is a senior principal with Stewart Cooper Newell Architects, and has designed over 135 fire/EMS stations and fire training facilities since 1988. He has provided architectural and consulting services for fire departments and municipalities in 20 states. He also has spoken at various national and state fire conferences.