Friday, June 18, 2010

New Engine 38 Firehouse News

As you may know we lost our firehouse last year for the Interstate 95 expansion project. This was Tacony's 2nd firehouse. Ironically our first firehouse was razed to make way for I-95 too.

Each of firehouse was very much of their era. The first, built in the last 1800s, was Victorian. The 2nd, built in the 1950s or 60s, was a modern brick building in somewhat of an international style. Our new firehouse will be extremely modern and will be completely green. It will be the City of Philadelphia's first totally green building. Here is the architectural firm's website: www.cecilbakerpartners.com

This project falls under the 1% for public art. The artist, Zhao Suikang, is formulating his ideas and has not developed the total concept yet. It is expected to involve multiple small bronze sculptures and plaques along a pathway in Disston Park. He got great information on Tuesday and is coming back for more in depth discussions. What have heard so far has us very excited. The artist hopes to obtain some equipment, artifact or apparatus symbolizing the saw works that he can create a sculpture with. He's pretty juiced up about this project, and he's done some pretty amazing stuff. Also he factored no salary into the project and is contributing all his time, devoting the whole budget to materials. His website: www.zhaosuikang.com.

Groundbreaking should be late Summer or early Fall.

1 comment:

  1. Where is the firehouse being built?
    In the Park at Keystone and Magee?

    ReplyDelete