County of Ventura
Ojai Fire Station 20
Ojai, CA
The Ventura County Fire Department engaged Kruger Bensen Ziemer Architects Inc. to design a new replacement 2-bay fire station in the Upper Ojai Valley along Highway 150, approximately one mile west of the existing Fire Station 20.
The $7.3 million new station is approximately 8500 square feet – about four times the size of the existing station from 1959. VCFD was extremely conscientious about the large new building in a relatively rural area between the small cities of Ojai and Santa Paula and requested that the design fit in with the residential nature of the nearby community.
The building was styled in a Craftsman aesthetic, with large overhangs, horizontal siding, and exposed beam ends. However, being a fire station, these elements were not constructed of flammable wood products, but rather were fashioned from non-combustible cement board and glass fiber reinforced concrete. The new facility brings modern touches, such as pull-through apparatus bays for safety, a large photovoltaic array above the apparatus bays facing the rear of the property, and rainwater storage for landscape irrigation.
