The Bozeman Fire Station No. 3 and 911 Communications Building brought together not only city and county governments, but also two architects to create one facility.

Then–Bozeman Chief Chuck Winn collaborated with Bill Hanson, president and owner of ThinkOne, a local architecture firm that specializes in institutional facilities, and Brian Harris, AIA, LEED AP, president, of Seattle's TCA Architecture Planning Inc. to get the project off the ground.

Hanson said the arrangement between the city and county was similar to a condo ownership; the county owned the land, while the city funded the building. He credits Winn with pursing the land-acquisition agreement by the county and the city's use of the building for the station.

The building is 15,000 square feet; Bozeman's Fire Station Number 3 occupies 10,500 square feet and Gallatin County's 911 Dispatch Center takes 4,700 square feet. The station is the only building within Gallatin County's 100-acre regional park and serves as a civic anchor for the adjacent residential development. The design of the facility reflects a more traditional-style fire station with brick and brick arches. There is a tower over the entry way and serves as a landmark for the building as it faces the park.

"If someone needs help, they know where to enter the building," Hanson said. "[But] we designed the 911 center with security in mind. The walls of the exterior are hardened with bullet-proof walls."

The city and designed the facility to pursue a LEED rating; however, costs may now prohibit the application. Still one feature in this facility that Hanson is particularly proud of is the ground-source heat pump. "We used almost a half-acre of the land for a closed loop system and that system reduced our carbon footprint by about seventy percent and a payback of less than 12 years," said Hanson. "It's a very sophisticated system with a redundancy system for the 911 center. We have the backup system and the building envelope exceeds energy standards."

The estimated $7.1 million facility is expected to be fully operational by this summer. The project used a design-build delivery method to meet the project schedule and reduce costs for the two government entities.