The renovation of Firehouse 23, which has been the home of Byrd Barr Place since 1970, is a complex project due to need to balance the history of the building and the needs of the community. Lund Opsahl has been working with SHKS Architects and the rest of the design team to bring this necessary expanded community center to life. The new design will provide gathering spaces for the community, a grocery store style food bank, and a new elevator for our disabled neighbors in the Central District.

Our team put together the structural set with pride. Senior Design Engineer Rebecca Rumann did excellent work putting together construction details that incorporate usable plans for assembling complicated seismic retrofits within the existing structure so that construction is safe and straight-forward for our partners in construction at the Rafn Company, and Engineering-in-Training Garrett Peterson’s lateral analysis and brace frame design will keep the building in safe structural condition as Byrd Barr carry out their mission. Our collaboration on this project has been one of our favorite projects over the last year and a half, and putting together a design that preserves and honors the history of the building was a challenge we jumped on. As the construction continues, we’re excited to see this award-winning design come to fruition.