- March 29, 2025
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Out on Pine Island, 22 miles from downtown Fort Myers, there are plans underway to build a new firehouse.
It’s going to be 8,500 square feet. It’s going cost $5 million. The money to pay for it is going to come from a federal grant.
That may not count as news for some. Counties and cities update facilities on a regular basis, after all. But in this post Hurricane Ian, Helene and Milton world this one stands out.
That’s because the local architecture firm charged with designing the firehouse is drawing up a facility that will both withstand the ravages of a monster storm and provide a safe haven so firefighters and rescue crews can ride it out in order to help residents in its aftermath.
The firm is Castellanos & Tramonte Architects.
What it is designing is a fire station that can come as close as possible to withstanding the most brutal of hurricanes than can hit the area.
“The only thing you can't make it is tornado proof," says Art Castellanos, president of the five-person firm in Cape Coral.
“You really can't design a tornado proof building, but you can design a high level, high wind type of building.”
Castellanos & Tramonte Architects was founded in 1992 by Jason Tramonte. Castellanos came on board in 2016 and bought the firm when Tramonte retired.
It works with commercial, governmental and institutional clients, including the Lake County school district. It worked on the rebuilding of Fort Myers Beach Elementary and is currently designing a four-story multi-tenant building in downtown Cape Coral.
“We’ve done fire stations before,” Castellanos says. “A lot of fire stations.”
What Castellanos and his team are working on for the fire station, at 5051 Stringfellow Road in St. James City, is designing a building that can withstand the worst a hurricane can deliver.
The building, as it is envisioned, is going to be concrete block and stucco reinforced. That's being done so it can it can withstand heavy wind loads of up to 170 miles per hour and the amount of rain that comes with a big storm.
The firm also plans on raising the building to three feet above flood requirements by bringing in "structural type sand" that will allow for the firefighters to stay in place while a storm is approaching and then operate after flood waters recede.
This is a big change on Pine Island, says Castellanos. In the past, firefighters have had to leave the island because stations aren’t flood compliant. Now, he says they’ll be able to access their trucks and other equipment in order to service residents.
Castellans says the firm is building on the lessons learned during Ian, when Pine Island was heavily damaged and the bridge that connected it to the mainland was washed away — leaving rescuers to be airlifted in to provide support.
The hurricane caused significant damage to older buildings that weren't built to current codes, especially those below flood elevation. And like nearby Fort Myers Beach, and elsewhere, older structures built before stricter building codes were in place suffered catastrophic damage due to broken windows, water intrusion and wind damage.
In addition to features that buttress the building, there will be a triage room, upgraded living spaces and a helicopter pad.
The plan calls for the current station, which was built in 1991 and has survived several storms over the years, to be demolished and a temporary one to go up during construction. The drawings have been completed and the next step is the permit approval, Castellanos says.
If all goes as planned, the new station could open as soon the summer of 2026, or says Castellano, by 2027.
The work Castellanos & Tramonte Architects are doing to build a more resilient fire station is not unlike work being done by home and commercial builders across the region.
On Fort Myers Beach, Stevens Construction is rebuilding The Beach Bar to better handle storms by using stronger materials and putting in equipment that can be removed as storms approach. On Captiva, the owners of the South Seas resort are looking to build on higher ground and putting up barriers to help reduce flooding.
For homeowners, the Florida Legislature funded the My Safe Florida Home Program, which provides free home inspections and matches funding for projects “to harden homes against storms,” including strengthening roof-to-deck attachments, reinforcing roof-to-wall connections and upgrading exterior windows and doors.
“Resiliency is a big word now for projects,” says Castellanos.
Clients, he says, want to make sure they are safe during storms and their equipment stays dry. That means buildings need to look a certain way and that, as designers, the firm doesn't put a lot of glass on the south sides of buildings, where wind will break it.
“There's a lot of design that goes into some of these buildings,” he says.
