Challenge:
Choose an overhead sectional door for a new fire station that is able to provide the correct architectural design elements, plenty of insulation for energy efficiency, and capable of handling the desired wind load protection.
Solution:
Four Amarr® 2042 Extra Heavy-Duty Steel Sectional Doors (each 14'2" wide x 14' high) with 2" 19.4 R-value foamed-inplace polyurethane insulation as well as two galvanized steel struts per section for 141 mph rated wind load protection. Each of the doors also includes two aluminum full view sections with 1/2" tempered glass and two galvanized steel struts. All the doors use standard lift 3" track and torsion springs rated for 75,00 cycles. The doors’ steel panels feature a factory-applied smooth True White finish and the aluminum full view panels have a black anodize finish.
Results:
A combination of steel and aluminum full view panel overhead sectional doors solution that complements the new fire station’s architecture, provides plenty of R-value for the desired LEED Silver level certification and can withstand high wind loads in a mountainous region.
Application:
Environment:
Fire Station
Location:
Ketchum (Sun Valley), Idaho
Ketchum Fire Department – Ketchum (Sun Valley), Idaho
A world-renowned vacation mecca like Idaho’s Sun Valley — the birthplace of destination skiing in the U.S. — deserves a first-rate fire station.
But that wasn’t always the case for the city of Ketchum, Sun Valley’s neighboring municipality.
Previous to the Ketchum Fire Department’s modern new 16,000 square foot station, the city’s former fire station was located in the town’s center in what was once a car dealership. The new station, now positioned on the quieter north end of Ketchum apart from the busy downtown area, will help to ensure faster emergency response.
Three times as big as its former location, Ketchum’s new fire station is two stories high with four pull-through vehicles bays and a training room on the main level. Six sleeping dorms, a day room, kitchen, workstations, and captain’s office are located on the upper level.
The fire station, which also features metal and masonry as the dominant exterior materials, was designed around sustainable design practices with an energy-efficient envelope, mechanical and electrical systems. Since it opened in the fall of 2021, the fire station has achieved the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification.
Among the fire station’s various functional components are the vehicle bays’ four eastfacing elevation sectional overhead doors. Featuring a high R-value, the doors along with carefully positioned radiant heaters help keep the stations staff of 15 full-time staff and 40 volunteers at a comfortable 62 degrees F in the vehicle bays even during the coldest winter weather.
Ketchum Fire Department’s fire chief Bill McLaughlin, Cole Architects (architect of record – Boise) and TCA Architecture Planning (fire station specialist architect – Seattle), along with door installer Michael Beltrami, Vice President – General Manager, and his team at Crawford Door Sales of Idaho, Inc. , worked together on the fire station project to bring it to life.
According to Cole Architects’ Ian Hoffman, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, Partner/Architect, his firm was primarily responsible for spec’ing the four sectional overhead doors.
Contemporary industrial look and design
Each of the four Amarr® 2042 Extra Heavy-Duty Steel Sectional Doors is 14'2" wide x 14' high with 2" 19.4 R-value foamed-in-place polyurethane insulation. Each door also features two galvanized steel struts per section for 141 mph-rated wind load protection. The doors also include two aluminum full view sections each with four panes of 1/2" Solarban 60 Clear Tempered Glass (Code F1E) and two galvanized steel struts.
All the doors use standard lift 3" track, torsion springs rated for 75,00 cycles with steel panels featuring a factory-applied smooth True White finish and aluminum full view panels with a black anodize finish.
“The Amarr doors’ overall design
and color scheme make a very nice
industrial design statement for the
fire station that’s quite dramatic.”
Mark Johnson, FAIA, Architectural Sales
Manager, Amarr
“The Amarr doors’ overall design and color scheme make a very nice industrial design statement for the fire station that’s quite dramatic,” said Mark Johnson, FAIA, Architectural Sales Manager, Amarr. “In addition, the galvanized steel wind loads struts that show through glass windows create an interesting interior detail further emphasizing the station’s overall industrial look and horizontal lines.”
Amarr a first for Cole Architects
Hoffman shared that the Ketchum fire station project was the first time his firm selected Amarr commercial doors.
“We’re satisfied and are quite pleased with the operational aspect of the Amarr sectional doors as is the fire station which makes us happy,” “The Amarr doors’ overall design and color scheme make a very nice industrial design statement for the fire station that’s quite dramatic.” Mark Johnson, FAIA, Architectural Sales Manager, Amarr 3 Hoffman explained. “Our firm hasn’t had the greatest success with other door manufacturers so Amarr really stood out from our previous poor experience with other brands.”
Hoffman further pointed out that his firm has experienced problems with other door manufacturers primarily due to their limited design selection and not being able to accommodate what the firm wanted, especially when going outside standard design norms.
“Amarr firmly understood what
we wanted in the door design as
well as what we expected from the
door installer.”
Ian Hoffman, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C,
Partner/Architect, Cole Architects
“We’ve received a lot of pushback from door manufacturers on installation and other key issues,” Hoffman elaborated. “With Amarr and the Ketchum fire station project, we never ran into any confusing aspects compared to other projects. Amarr firmly understood what we wanted in the door design as well as what we expected from the door installer. At the time, we had several projects going on concurrently and a couple of those didn’t use Amarr doors and didn’t go smoothly while the Ketchum project with Amarr did.”
Hoffman added that from his firm’s standpoint, the type of pre-spec work they do on the sectional doors portion sometimes doesn’t always go as planned and Hoffman said that his firm definitely plans to use Amarr doors for future projects.
Primary and secondary entrapment protection
Based on Ketchum’s winter climate, the need to conserve energy to keep operating costs down, concern about air infiltration for the fire station as well as door safety for staff were significant door issues from the project’s inception.
And although the door installation team did not run into any unexpected challenges, the installers did though have to carefully work around the fire station’s radiant heater system, suspended LED lighting as well as an exhaust elimination system.
The Amarr 2042 Extra Heavy-Duty Steel Sectional Doors’ safety features include:
- Photoelectric sensor (primary entrapment protection device): when an object crosses between them, a downward moving door will reverse direction.
- Pneumatic sensing edge (secondary entrapment protection device): standard 2- wire sensing edge that will cause the door to reverse direction when it meets an obstruction.
In addition, when the sectional doors are raised, a special interlock designed into the radiant heat system prevents the heaters from activating which could ultimately damage the doors’ finish if exposed to direct heat from only a few feet away for any length of time.
“We had to take a close look at
the Amarr doors from an
engineering standpoint. They
had to be rated well for both wind
load and insulation.”
Bill McLaughlin, Fire Chief, Ketchum
Fire Department
Chief McLaughlin pointed out that wind and cold are expected environmental issues for a mountainous region like Sun Valley.
“When working on the fire station’s design, we had to take a close look at the Amarr doors from an engineering standpoint,” McLaughlin said. “They had to be rated well for both wind load and insulation. The doors also had to provide enough glass for viewing vehicle activity and natural light infiltration but not too much glass that would contribute to hear loss.”
While Chief McLaughlin is highly satisfied with his new Ketchum Fire Department station’s Amarr doors, one of the other most notable improvements is that all four of the station’s firefighters now each have their own dorm room. According to McLaughlin, the old fire station only had three dorm rooms which meant that one person always had to sleep in a recliner in the station’s TV lounge. Fortunately, those days are gone forever.
Available Architect Resources
For details on the 2042 Extra Heavy-Duty Steel Sectional Doors and 3552 Aluminum Full View glass panels, visit Amarr Steel Sectional Overhead Doors and Amarr Aluminum Sectional Doors. To explore more about available Lift Options, including Standard Lifts, visit Amarr Commercial Door Lift Options.
We also offer Continuing Education classes, CAD and BIM drawings, LEED resources and more!
Visit Amarr Architect Resources to learn more or contact us at 800-503-DOOR (3667).