January 17, 2026 — Redmond, Wash. The Redmond City Council voted 6-0 on November 18, 2025, to approve demolishing and rebuilding the Old Fire House Teen Center at its original NE 79th Street location to modernize the facility for youth programs, following its closure in March 2025 due to hazardous materials, structural failures, and other safety issues.
The center, which served Redmond for 73 years as a community hub and teen center since the 1990s, offered drop-in hours, art and music classes, live performances, and audio internships. Programs relocated to the Redmond Community Center at Marymoor Village to maintain services.
A 2024 facilities assessment and further reviews in June-July 2025 identified issues, including a failing roof, seismic concerns, outdated systems, and ADA inaccessibility, making safe operations unsustainable.
The unanimous decision, as described in local coverage, followed robust community engagement from early 2025, including online surveys from over 300 participants, stakeholder group meetings facilitated by consultants, workshops, and focus groups. The Old Fire House Teen Center Stakeholder Group recommended rebuilding on-site.
Rebuild the teen center on the same location, prioritizing expedience in construction, centering teen voices in the design process, and including music performance space and a dedicated recording studio to continue the Old Fire House Teen Center legacy. — Council motion
Additional engagement will guide the project. The city announcement on November 26 detailed these plans.
Community pushback continues. At a January 6, 2026, council meeting, former participants urged a more inclusive process after the site’s fencing and exclusion from decisions.
“We were kicked out and then told to engage in a process that most of us were excluded from,” said Max Roman. — Citizen portal coverage
Wolf Adriatico emphasized the site’s history as Redmond’s first city hall, police, and fire station. A Save OFH petition collected nearly 4,000 signatures to preserve the building.
Recent discussions include a Reddit thread in r/redmond and a Winter 2026 Redmond Moments article shared via Instagram on January 14, 2026, confirming the unanimous vote.
