Cambridge Officials Celebrate Start of $77 Million Fire Station Renovations

Top Cambridge officials celebrated the start of long-delayed renovations on the Cambridge Fire Department Headquarters at a Tuesday groundbreaking ceremony at the 491 Broadway St. construction site.

At the ceremony, Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons acknowledged the project’s extended timeline and rising costs, which ballooned from $25 million to $77 million as the city expanded its renovation plans.

“This $77 million investment represents our unwavering commitment to public safety, our firefighters and the well-being of every Cambridge resident,” she said.

Acting Cambridge Fire Department Chief Thomas F. Cahill attributed the changing plans to the city’s discovery of underlying issues with the existing building.

“Once they started digging into those problems, they found that the problems were all structural so you just couldn’t commit and put another Band-Aid,” Cahill said in an interview before the event.

The project was originally proposed in 2019 but has faced delays due to expanding construction plans, complications related to its urban location, and pandemic-related setbacks. The city now expects to finish renovations in summer 2026.

Architect Theodore Galante, whose Cambridge-based firm helped design the renovations, said in an interview that the high costs were necessary.

“Doing a building like this and getting it right, making the building as sustainable as we are, costs money,” he said. “You can either have it fast, cheap, or good.”

The project aims to improve the safety and functionality of the 92-year-old building with enhanced safety features, updated living quarters, and a new public art installation in office spaces.

At the event, city staff distributed a program highlighting their plans to make the building more sustainable — including charging stations for electric vehicles, LED lighting, better insulation, rooftop solar panels, and efficient heating and cooling systems.

Brian Paradee, the senior project manager for the renovations, praised the city’s efforts to make energy-efficient upgrades despite the building’s location on a narrow triangle of land between busy streets and Harvard campus buildings.

“There’s a big commitment in the City of Cambridge for sustainability — 17 geothermal wells on a tight site like this, solar on the roof, all-electric buildings,” he said.

In a speech at the ceremony, Galante described the renovations as a cutting-edge investment in sustainable public infrastructure.

“The city has taken on climate change in a way that is foundational,” he said. “It sets an example for what's happening nationwide.”

Simmons said in an interview that she hopes the planned addition of new privacy features will improve working conditions for women in the building.

“They need to have the same kind and quality of working conditions and sleeping conditions as their fellow firefighters,” she said.

Both Simmons and Cahill — who dedicated the upgraded headquarters “to the over 60 firefighters who call this building their home, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year” — emphasized that they hoped the building would work better for its staff.

“I’m glad that Cambridge is in a position that they can afford to do this,” Simmons said.