KUOW's Marcie Sillman recently asked me to go on a short public art walk with her, to talk about an area of the city that I love and that wouldn't be the way it is without public money for art. (Listen for her piece, a larger look at the kind of public art that just fades into the background—not the kind that sticks out in big sculptures and the like—in the coming weeks.)

I immediately thought of the corner of Yesler and 23rd, a corner that's sort of a sleeper hit both in terms of art and architecture. The 1913-era Douglass-Truth Library, a gem in itself, now has a glassed-in new addition that throws a spotlight on a bunch of art on the interior walls. There's also an incredibly strange private residence just east of the library, on the next plot over. The house is two triangles sitting on the grass facing each other. A husband and wife who want to live close but not that close? One house for people, the other for pets? Whatever it is, it's curious and pretty great.

And then there's Fire Station No. 6: the Art Deco/Moderne building that George Stewart designed in 1931, and the art installed on the transom windows above the bay doors: a lightning-bolt grille, based on the original building design, made of anodized aluminum and blue neon by the artists Ellen Ziegler and Tom Askman in 1987. When the piece lights up at night, I always feel like the building is recharging.

Come to find out the artwork is permanently sited there, and will be sold as part of the fire station, which is a historic landmark—because the city is building a new Fire Station 6 at 2615 S. Jackson St. (nearby).

The firefighters have outgrown the historic building, and the city is already seeking artists for the new station at Jackson Street (details here).

But what's to become of the original Fire Station No. 6?

The city says the new fire station is scheduled to be completed in 2012, and that the firefighters will remain in the current station until the new one is completed.

After that, the building and the artwork together go onto the open market. A class at UW has already been thinking about what it could become: 401.5a.ConceptReview.pdf.

It all makes me want to take a free tour of the place while it's still functioning. On the site before this building, starting in 1894, was another fire house—and in the early days of the 20th century, both horses and streetcars ran up and down both Yesler and 23rd. This building, with its early machine look, is such a part of that history. Parts of it will be protected by landmarks but I'm not sure which parts, or how it will be permitted to change. Expansion was ruled out because it would have tampered with the historic nature of the building. But I can't help but be sad that it will no longer be an actual fire station.

^{Photo by Fecki}