The Fire Dept. of New York started construction on a two-story, 12,400-sq-ft Emergency Medical Service Station located on Metropolitan Avenue near Bedford Street in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section.

The new station, designed by Michielli + Wyetzner, New York, is part of the New York City Department of Design and Construction’s design excellence program, which helps the FDNY improve response time to medical emergencies throughout the city.

The new station will be divided into four parts, with the first floor designed to store four emergency vehicles, a vehicle support zone and personal protective equipment storage area, a lieutenant’s office and other administrative spaces. The second floor will house the locker rooms and bathrooms for the 54 women and 97 men that will maintain the station’s three work shifts. And on the west side of the second floor will be a training room and a 700-sq-ft combined kitchen and lounge area.

One of the key features of the new EMS station will be a 90-ft long, second-story translucent glass wall that will have a honeycomb pattern set into the glass and will appear to float above the facility’s ground floor. The station will be lit up in the evenings to create a distinct presence in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint community.

The new EMS station is slated to open in June 2012.