Dennis Fire Department’s Station #2 Finishes Construction

The Galante Architecture Studio has finished construction on another state-of-the-art fire station, located in the small town of Dennis, Massachusetts. Efficient storage, increased response times, and community-friendly spaces are all handsomely housed in TGAS’ trademark blend of historical homage and contemporary craftsmanship.
“The design goal was to create something that fits well into the Cape area, but its details and elements differentiate it from typical Cape Cod-style buildings,” said TGAS Principal and Project Manager Paolo Carissimi.
The newly constructed facility holds seven bunkrooms, locker rooms, and a kitchen/dayroom area with exposed ceiling timber trusses, New England-style. Its Cape-like elements includes a gabled roof on the two-story administrative section. The double-height brick volume housing the three double-loaded apparatus bays recalls a classic New England barn, but it can hold far more than that. The station is built to store six fire trucks, two per bay, and stationed back-to-back; all trucks can exit on either side of the building, hastening the Dennis Fire Department’s overall response times. In the rear, a one-story firefighter training room doubles as a 60-person-capacity community room with exposed ceiling trusses.
“For public meetings and community events, people can enter the station through a separate access door so the room can be used without having to go through the Fire Department area,” said Carissimi.
The Dennis Fire Department Headquarters originated at the 2016 Firehouse Station Design Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, where TGAS founding principal Ted Galante spoke before a crowd of fire department representatives from across the nation. His speech on “Ten of the Coolest Fire Stations on Earth” piqued the interest of Dennis Fire Department reps in attendance, including Ed Gula and Tony Kent.
“People thought it was amazing,” said Galante. “They were energetic because I was pushing some design ideas out there.”
The Galante Architecture Studio was invited to apply for the project, and were later selected to design the new fire station due to the firm’s innovative design experience.
TGAS began by leading a feasibility study that compared the benefits of renovating the existing facility versus constructing a new one. After much analysis, the study concluded that the existing building was beyond repair: equipment and vehicles lacked proper storage, combustible liquid spillage on the floor yielded a dangerous working environment for the firefighters, and there existed no decontamination zones or fitness rooms.
“It was really small and outdated for the current needs of the Fire Department and what new codes require,” said Carissimi.
After seven separate site analyses, a new fire station was decided to be built in Dennis. TGAS subsequently was hired to lead design and construction of the new facility, with construction completing two years after the initial groundbreaking. The new Dennis Fire Station #2’s apparatus stationing capacity increased by 50%, new advanced decontamination systems and programming were implemented, and new fitness rooms were added to provide the fire department a healthier working environment.
Excitement for the new building was evident at the facility’s groundbreaking on January 13, 2022, when the Cape Cod Fire Department reported, “Many members of the community who have been waiting for this moment for many years turned out to be a part of history.” These sentiments have been echoed by the local community and the Dennis Fire Department.
“The community loves the new facility,” said Carissimi. “All the Fire Department’s requests were satisfied, and they’re happy with the building.”