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The Rhode Island Army National Guard has commissioned David DeQuattro and RGB Architects team to design its brand-new Counter Drug Administrative and Training Facility. Located in Coventry, Rhode Island, the project is estimated to cost around $4.35 million to serve federal, state, and municipal markets.

The firm is a highly diverse architecture, interior design, and project management company that serves a formidable range of clients in New England and throughout Rhode Island. The firm keeps ecological and innovation at its core, so it’s no wonder the RI Army National Guard chose this enterprise to design their structure.

The Counter Drug Training Facility

The National Guard Counter Drug program bridges the gap between non-DoD and DoD institutions in the battle against illegal substances and countrywide threats.

The highly qualified team supports detecting, preventing, disrupting, and curtailing drug trafficking activities using interagency efforts to minimize the threats and negative impacts of transnational criminal organizations.

And this new training facility will help the Rhode Island Army National Guard better deliver the program, keeping the state (and nation) a safer place for the population.

According to the facility design, the establishment will include training areas, dormitories, and administrative areas. Specifically, the rooms will include:

• showers
• barracks
• latrines
• lockers
• offices
• arms vaults
• storage vaults
• classrooms
• parking spaces;
• and much more. 

The building will accommodate as many as ten full-time staff and a minimum capacity of 50 trainees.

The National Guard Training Facility Location

According to the site boundary map posted by the project’s architects, the Counter Drug Training Facility will sit behind structures already on the Camp Fogarty Training Site, covering an expansive area.

The design team has already conducted the site selection study and drawn the conceptual design for the new facility. However, it is currently waiting for the Rhode Island Army National Guard to direct them, so construction documents and bidding can commence.

The Project Adds to The Already-Extensive Offerings at the Camp Fogarty Training Grounds

The new Counter Drug Training Facility will add to the Rhode Island Army National Guard’s huge operations at Camp Fogarty. Once construction is complete, it will join the Readiness/Reserve Center (formally known as the Joint Force Headquarters) as the second exciting recent addition.

The Readiness/Reserve Center is an 80,766-square-foot, two-story building containing administrative, logistics, and training offices for the Rhode Island Air National Guard and the Rhode Island Army National Guard.

Consolidating personnel once housed in the Schofield Armory and Command Readiness Center, the building stands on a federally owned 22-acre site.

It boasts a Joint Operations Center (JOC), Collaboration Area, integrated Army Guard and Air Guard command room, and a NIPRNET. All the classrooms and training areas are technologically enhanced, allowing trainees to satisfy their capabilities and meet their goals.

The National Guard employed Pond for this development and RGB Architects for the soon-to-be-built Counter Drug Training Facility. However, both maintain the exterior aesthetic utilized in other areas of Camp Fogarty for flawless cohesion.

One of the most recent projects undertaken by David DeQuattro and RGB Architects was to create a new fire training academy in Exeter, RI.

The design was completed in two phases. The first was to create a “burn” building measuring 3,550 square feet, a training tower, a storage building, parking spaces for emergency vehicles, and a 15,000 square feet training area. The second and final phase incorporated the fire department headquarters and classroom/office space.

Below, more on what the project entailed:

About the Rhode Island Fire Training Academy

Rhode Island has over 6000 firefighters enlisted within the state, so it is important that they all have access to the best training facility possible.

Holding the training facility in one place means that a coordinated effort can be made to ensure everyone is on the same page, and that every fire department has access to the same state-of-the-art technologies and facilities to enhance their practice.

These requirements included a top-of-the-range “burn” building for firefighting simulations, as well as space to carry out ground operations training. Classroom space was also required for theoretical learning.

Phase 1

The first phase of design and construction for the Rhode Island Fire Training Academy was to create the practical training space needed for the state’s fire service.


This included a “burn” building, which is used by firefighters to set controlled fires to allow them to carry out a range of tests, training exercises, and simulations. This needed to be created and designed to strict specifications to not only ensure operability, but also the safety of firefighters training in the space.

The large, 15,000 square feet training ground was also completed in phase 1. This large area allows firefighters to carry out larger maneuvers, including learning how to operate larger fire trucks and equipment.

Construction of the structures and spaces for phase 1 concluded in 2011.

Phase 2

Phase 2 revolved around creating the other buildings needed at the site. A large, 8,100 square feet complex was designed as a place for fire department administration. This building also houses the classrooms used by firefighters for non-practical training and learning while at the academy.

This final phase of design and construction was completed in 2017, with the official opening ceremony for the training academy taking place on June 4th of that year.

Future Impact of the Rhode Island Fire Training Academy

The $5.5 million project has helped to train hundreds of new firefighters across the state, including a program allowing high schoolers in Providence to complete a 150-hour training course to help to train the firefighters of the future.

This state-of-the-art training hub also reduces costs for local fire departments by allowing for collective training of trainees and firefighters from across the state, meaning that costly training programs don’t need to be run for only one or two applicants at a time.

About RGB Architects

This is not the first municipal project for RGB Architects, who have designed many other plans for government buildings across Rhode Island and beyond.

Other projects have included health centers, schools, police stations, and libraries.