Work toward a new Wilmington fire station off Cinema Drive, in a plan to reduce the number of stations citywide from 11 to nine, still hangs in the design phase after Wilmington City Council on Monday again withheld endorsement for any of the conceptuals presented to them.
Staffers from the Becker Morgan design firm had unveiled a number of renderings in June that failed to impress the city’s elected leaders. And their perspectives–that the designs were either too different from the other fire stations in town or imagined with undesirable architectural schemes–repeated during a briefing Monday morning.
“Why is it we’re trying to make it look residential?” asked Councilwoman Margaret Haynes. She also opined that certain elements of individual designs looked like a combination of a shopping center, a garage and a homeowners association clubhouse.
She gave some preference to a design that surfaced previously that had more uniformity across its face and gave more of a “public building” impression.
Councilwoman Laura Padgett reiterated a past assertion that new fire stations constructed in the city should resemble the others for a sense of identity. The Cinema Drive ideas looked like standalones, she observed.
“Years ago, I thought we were heading in that direction, to have fire stations look similar,” Padgett said. “You drove past a fire station in the city of Wilmington, you knew it was a City of Wilmington fire station, because the design looked similar.”
(She acknowledged that the more recently built stations, like the glassy Seagate and Empie Park facilities, apparently took a different route.)
“Can’t we change up the facade somewhat?” Mayor Bill Saffo asked the design team Monday of the concepts for Cinema Drive. Previously, Becker Morgan noted there’s no harmony among buildings on the street currently anyway, so the fire station there wouldn’t have any apparent site standards to meet.
The firm will work up at least one more new concept to show council based on Monday’s feedback–said Becker Morgan architect Ernie Olds, “As you can see, aesthetics are a tough thing”–but Deputy City Manager Tony Caudle insisted the project needs to pick up pace.
“We’re really falling behind,” he said.
Past story: Council members critique designs for Cinema Drive fire station
Plans to construct the new station began hardening in August 2012, when Wilmington City Council gave the city manager authority to purchase two parcels off Cinema Drive, ultimately picked up for a total of $712,000.
Dollar signs were not laid out for the designs presented Monday, but past ideas ranged from $2 million to $2.6 million, with floor plans between 10,000-13,000 square feet.
The largest included four fire-engine bays and a community meeting space with public restrooms and a number of associated parking spots. The smallest design included three bays and excluded the community room.
The Cinema Drive station, and plans for another on Shipyard Boulevard near its intersection with Carolina Beach Road, are part of a greater initiative to reduce the number of City of Wilmington fire stations from 11 to nine.
Past story: Money programmed for new fire stations in Wilmington
Marked for closure are those at 1502 Wellington Ave., 3939 Carolina Beach Road, 3933 Princess Place Drive and 310 Wallace Drive.
A memo in March explained the reduction involved strategic locations for the new houses that would allow the city to meet needs and response-time benchmarks all the same.
For Cinema Drive–a short, curved connector less than a half-mile long between Market Street and South Kerr Avenue–the plan would also entail traffic signals at each end.
Ben Brown is a news reporter at Port City Daily. Reach him at [email protected] or (910) 772-6335. On Twitter: @benbrownmedia
