Firefighters Memorial Park

Mark Thomas provided conceptual design, construction drawings, and construction management with the City of Calistoga for the redesign and restoration of this memorial pocket park.

Over the years, this park became a neighborhood memorial magnet, with a firefighter ’s plaque, a volunteer-built drinking fountain and memorial benches. During the construction of a nearby bridge crossing the Napa River, the site was used for construction staging and equipment storage. To restore the site, the City asked Mark Thomas to develop plans for redesign that would actively incorporate the community’s deep gratitude to the firefighters following the Tubbs fire of 2017.

The site features the original memorial firefighter ’s plaque, refurbished and mounted on a solid piece of granite; new memorial benches with new plaques for dedication; a new, accessible drinking fountain that includes a pet basin and new dedication plaque; site lighting; and a new precast seatwall with impressed words of thanks in all the languages represented by the residents of Calistoga. Plantings were specifically chosen to represent fire and smoke, provide drought tolerance, and provide lively splashes of color throughout the year. This park is entirely turf-free and irrigated using an adjacent water source and solar irrigation controller.