Designing a Fire Station With Community Engagement

Engaging residents and neighbors early in the design process for a new firehouse strengthened bonds between the department and the community.

By Katie Atwater, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Principal, FGM Architects

Firehouses are more than operational facilities; they are civic symbols and community anchors and often create or reinforce local identity. They represent safety and readiness and often are seen as one of the most trusted local institutions. Engaging residents and neighbors early in the process helps to ensure that a new station strengthens the bonds that are between the department and the community, particularly when the historical marginalization of residents has left an imprint.

The development of the Arlington County, VA Fire Department’s Fire Station 8 leveraged community engagement as a core design tool from the earliest stages of the project.

Sustained, inclusive dialogue

History played a critical role in understanding the station and the community that it serves as well as the reason that community engagement was critical to its success.

The Halls Hill Volunteer Fire Department (HHVFD) was established in 1918 in response to the racial segregation of public safety. The all-white Arlington County Fire Department (ACFD) refused to respond to emergencies within the Black neighborhood of Halls Hill, which was walled off from the rest of the county. The 14 Black volunteers who served as the first HHVFD firefighters initially fought fires by grabbing a shared water tank and carrying it to the fire on foot.

The station was absorbed as the ACFD’s Fire Station 8 in 1944 and was integrated in 1963. As Rev. Ashley Goff, chaplain for the ACFD, reflected at the Hose Uncoupling Ceremony, “Station 8 was more than a station. It was safety, it was joy, and it was family. It knit together the Black communities of Arlington.”

When facility planning suggested relocating Station 8 to another neighborhood...

Discover more in the original article published by Firehouse Magazine on Jauary 23, 2026.