Pike County Fire Training & 911 Emergency Management Center

Client: Pike County

MH&E Engineeringprovided planning, design, engineering (structural, civil, mechanical, plumbing & electrical), with the assistance of consultant David Wieboldt, architect. The building is three stories, with 8,400 square feet per floor for a total of 25,200 square feet. The building structure is constructed with steel beams and columns supporting a floor structure of precast concrete planks. The exterior walls are a combination of cold formed metal stud framed infill between floors with exterior finishes of brick veneer, metal siding panels and EIFS or Exterior Insulation and Finish System with a colored stucco. The roof structure is structural steel with open webbed steel joists, metal deck, rigid insulation and a single ply EPDM roof membrane. The interior walls are cold formed metal studs with gypsum board finish. The exterior walls include operable windows with aluminum frames. The Pike County commissioners, the building owner, chose not to go through the process of making this a LEED certified building, however, many sustainable design features were utilized to make the building as energy efficient as possible within the client budget constraints, including; maximizing insulation in the exterior envelope and installing a ground sourced heating and cooling system.

The plan of the building was configured with the lower floor containing a large equipment and supply storage space with three large overhead doors directly to the exterior for ease of moving the supplies and equipment when required for emergencies. That level also contains a training classroom, as well as toilet and shower facilities and mechanical equipment rooms. The main floor level contains three large classroom / training rooms which have moveable partitions which allow them to become one space. There is also a large kitchen and dining room for large emergencies when many people need to be fed. It also contains small sized EMS training rooms complete with supplies. That floor also contains a very large computer server / radio room with its own AC system in a separate room. The top floor houses the emergency operations center, the 911 call center, conference room, offices, toilet rooms and shower facilities, a bunk room and a break room to support those two functions.

The building interior environment was controlled by ground sourced heating and cooling with supplemental ventilation. The building is covered by a full sprinkler system. The building is also covered by 2 generators and a large UPS system to maintain constant power at all times.

The engineering and architectural services provided amounted to the standard range of services provided and included the following: building code analysis, energy code analysis, design, planning, interdisciplinary coordination with the structural engineers, process engineers, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, plumbing engineers and electrical engineers. The work performed also included a coordinated set of construction drawings & specifications as well as bid phase services and construction phase administration services.