San Jose Fire Department Training Center, San Jose, CA

Biggs Cardosa provided structural engineering services for the design of the San Jose Fire Department Training Center. The project includes several components:

• A new 2-story structural steel fire training/education building approximately 200 ft x 80 ft with special concentric braced frames. The fire training building will be used for fire training classrooms, fire training, EMS, recruit, data systems, and office emergency management administrative offices
• A new structural steel single story Emergency Operations Center including training rooms and administrative space for the Office of Emergency Management. The EOC was designed for a site-specific 475-year response CBC analysis with an Occupancy Category IV (I=1.5) for immediate occupancy performance.
• A 6-story structural masonry and cast-in-place concrete training tower with live fire training capabilities. The structure is coupled with 2 independent single story masonry buildings and linked with a concrete tunnel for confined space training. All three structures were constructed to exhibit different kind of structural systems and configurations to familiarize training firefighters with different kinds of structural systems. The top level includes a structural steel shade canopy for extended training time on the roof for rappelling exercises.
• Building D4 is an existing wood framed warehouse building with metal siding. This building will be used for supplemental non-essential equipment and vehicles as well as providing maintenance material storage and personnel offices.

The completed project will be USGBC LEED Gold Certified, Zero Net Energy and Zero Net Carbon and will meet the requirements of the City’s 2019 Reach Code. The facilities will be fully powered through roof-mounted and carport-mounted solar panels.