TOBIN, PLLC 

Location: Charlotte, NC

Charlotte’s new Fire Department Headquarters is centrally anchored on 5 acres of rehabilitated industrial land back-dropped by the city’s business and government center.  The 46,000 s.f. program suggested “Flagship” design quality, however, its primary purpose is to consolidate administrative and command divisions, previously dispersed throughout the city.  Regardless, its image, materiality and details are conceived as a traditional urban firehouse; a public showcase for polished equipment and disciplined recruits, a night-time neighborhood beacon with an “always at the ready” visage and massive masonry ‘apparatus bays,’ carefully detailed, inviting, and contextually scaled and a catalyst for future development in the district