Siegel & Strain designed the Wawona Wildland Fire Fighting Facility to provide Yosemite’s fire crews with a new state-of-the-art facility to replace an 80-year-old structure. The building houses apparatus bays, work areas, offices, a training room and support spaces, and is designed to easily expand for future bunk rooms, fitness room and more offices. The building was designed to get the most out of a very tight budget: a high-performance building envelope minimizes the size of the HVAC systems and provides efficient operations.

The project is one of the actions included in the Merced River Plan and a significant factor driving the project was to relocate the use above the 100-year flood plain. The firefighting facility was carefully sited to minimize impacts on trees and other park resources, while allowing fast response times for the apparatus.