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Over the past two decades, the shipping industry has evolved with the consolidation of shipping lines and increased vessel sizes. The Port of Long Beach (POLB) aims to maintain financial strength and asset security, investing in new terminal facilities for larger vessels and higher container volumes. To ensure business continuity and emergency response, POLB upgraded its fire safety facilities, including the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Fireboat Station No. 15. This modern fire security compound features a landside station building, a waterside boat bay, an access bridge, and other structures, designed to be operational after significant earthquake events. Given the waterfront site’s susceptibility to liquefaction and slope movement, various seismic design and construction methods were implemented. These included ground improvements, moment frames for the boat bay, performance-based design, and seismic isolation of structures. Challenges included installing building foundations on buried rock dikes, using steel moment frames for the boat bay’s large span and high clearance, enhancing the boat bay wharf’s seismic design, and designing a seismically isolated access bridge. The paper discusses the unique site and subsurface conditions, seismic design challenges, safety, cost, code regulations, and design procedures. It compares force-based and performance-based design criteria and shares lessons learned from construction challenges such as jet grouting, pile driving, and large-span framing. Innovative engineering solutions ensured the project’s success, enabled POLB to provide robust waterborne safety and extensive landside firefighting coverage, and protected a major commercial gateway for the nation.