Rowlett Fire Station #1
In addition to the residential work, I also design fire stations. I love fire stations – they are fun to work on, most of them are interesting to look at and the activities that go on inside are typically a lot of fun. I suppose there is the obvious connection between these two user groups which would suggest that any architect that does residential work could also do a fire station – but that’s not true.
Fire Stations are extremely complicated buildings technically and they are one of the few commercial building types that are open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There is also the challenge of integrating commercial uses with immediate adjacency to residential uses so that the building can maintain the duality of its purpose by providing a home to the people that live there while serving the greater public at large (people actually walking into a station for help). It should be pointed out that in my residential work, I don’t design kitchens with 3 refrigerators, living rooms with 12 barcalounger’s, community bathrooms with handicapped accessibility and mixed gender community sleeping areas. Actually, we do design mixed gender community sleeping areas but not for 12 people.
You have to consider that fire stations are civic buildings that are placed in residential environments, and that while these buildings need to fulfill many perceptions from the public at large, more specifically they need to address the perception of the community they serve. This could mean breaking the components of the building into smaller units and selecting materials so that the station fits into its neighborhood. It could also mean adjusting the architectural features to create a heightened sense of civic pride and stability.
Whenever I am meeting with a group of fire fighters, it doesn’t take long before one of them will mention that they hate when people describe fire stations as a house with a really fancy garage. While it is true that a portion of the building serves as the residence for the shifts of fire fighters who work there, there are public spaces designated for community uses, training areas, workout facilities, offices and watch stations
There are typically 3 crews of varying size that operate in 24 hour shifts – work one 24 hour day, off the next 48 hours and repeat. (Do the math – they are on duty over 800 hours more per year than the typical 8-5 M-F worker. That’s over 100 days more – no more weekends for you, get to work). They spend a lot of time in these buildings and their culture is highly defined (and for my fire fighter friends, I said defined, not evolved). They cook together, eat together, exercise together, and risk their lives together. To say they develop close personal bonds to one another is putting it lightly. In an effort to better understand how the fire fighters use these spaces, I have gone out on 24 hour shift ride-a-longs as this is really the best way to see how fire fighters spend their time while on duty and how they interact with the building; do the spaces work, what do they like, what do they hate, etc.
As serious as this work is (and it is deadly serious) I have never met a fire fighter who didn’t love their job. The enthusiasm for their job is extremely contagious and I always think how much I would like to be a member of this unique fraternity after every visit I make to a fire station. I have always been warmly welcomed and incorporated into the group for my day working the shift (even received a few nicknames that I will keep to myself).
If you ever get the chance to spend time with these amazing people and observe them during a shift you should do it – you will have an experience you will never forget.
Some quick info about the images here – the station at the top was the second station we designed and it won a national 2010 Bronze Station Style Award. This is Rowlett Station #1 – the main station – and it had a design goal of projecting the civic pride of this community.
The first movie here is for a station still in the design stage and is designed to fit in the scale and material palette of the residential neighborhood where it resides.
The last movie was a short film we produced to illustrate that despite the technological advancements that have occurred the culture of fire stations has not. The black and white station shown here is DFD Station #31, one of the oldest post WWII stations in the Dallas Fire Department.
I find Intelligence Quotient, or IQ, scores incredibly fascinating. When my wife and I learned that my daughter (39 months old at the time) would be required to get hers tested as part of the required application process to Dallas area private schools, I decided to educate myself on the subject.
The concept of measuring the IQ of an individual is credited to either German psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Stern in 1912, or to Lewis Terman in 1916 (sources vary). Prior to these dates, large scale testing was done by psychologist Alfred Binet in 1904 as part of a commission by the French government to create a system to differentiate intellectually normal children from those who were inferior (wow – that’s harsh). Binet created the Binet-Scale and sometime later, Dr. Terman revised this scale to become the Simon-Binet IQ Scale. That scale classified the scores as:
Over 140 – Genius or almost genius
120 – 140 – Very superior intelligence
110 – 119 – Superior intelligence
90 – 109 – Average or normal intelligence
80 – 89 – Dullness
70 – 79 – Borderline deficiency in intelligence
Under 70 – Feeble-mindedness
You can find lists of typical IQ scores by profession on the Internet and I’m not vouching for their credibility but the part that is the most interesting to me is how these scores can be used to measure the relative capabilities of the individual in a real world environment (i.e. what kind of job would you be capable of as the most valid predictor of future performance is general mental ability). To think that the intent of measuring one’s IQ is to determine to capability and capacity of an individual and that no amount of effort or preparation will allow someone with a 110 IQ to work a job that typically requires the capacity of a brain measuring something higher.
Top civil servants, Professors and Scientists – 140
Surgeons, Lawyers and Architects/ Engineers – 130
School teachers, Pharmacists, Accountants, Nurses, and Managers – 120.
Foremen, Clerks, Salesmen, Policemen and Electricians – 110
Machine operators, Welders, and Butchers – 100
Laborers, Gardeners, Miners, Sorters and Factory packers – 90
If you decided to have your IQ measured, the tests are most likely to use the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) or your child (like mine) would be tested with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. I have had my IQ tested twice in my life; once when I was a child in the second grade and again when I was in my early thirties and interestingly enough, the scores of the two tests, almost 25 years apart were virtually identical.
All that having been said, having a high IQ doesn’t mean all that much to the unmotivated individual and success is relative and not a indicator of happiness (unless of course you are only measuring it against failure). Click here for a list of estimated IQ’s of famous people past and present.
