What a New Fire Station Could Look Like

At last night’s Speakers’ Series event on public places, Planning Director Rollin Stanley showed many examples of interesting design for public places. While doing something else today, I came across pictures of a new fire station in St. Paul, Minnesota:

Note that the station is fit into an irregular shape, which was one of the reasons we were told the new fire station in White Flint couldn’t be put in the empty State Highway Administration land left over from the Montrose Parkway. But what is more impressive is what is inside the corner window:

Now THAT’s good design of a public space. It’s likely that it will become a popular community amenity, like the Bethesda fountain. “Meet me at the fire truck.” How often do you see THAT in a fire station?

The full blog post from St. Paul is here.  

Barnaby Zall