Community joins together to build a new landscaped garden at Fire Station 41

SEATTLE - In mid-2023, a garden club and landscape company from the Magnolia neighborhood joined together to design and build an upgraded garden space at Fire Station 41. What was once a simple and hardpacked field is now an impressive landscaped garden complete with a public artwork sculpture. The planning group held a dedication ceremony on Sept. 26 for the completed project, and shared more about how the transformed garden organically came about.

"We originally connected with a local garden club member last year during a National Night Out event," said Seattle Firefighter Mark Hauge. "Shortly after, the garden club approached a local landscaping company (Rainbow of Magnolia Landscaping), and the project came to fruition. Fire Station 41 is beyond grateful for the funding, labor and time they've put in to providing a complete makeover of our garden and creating a beautiful location for the neighborhood. We can't thank them enough for their efforts."

The Carleton Park Garden Club handled project management, grant writing and the garden design. Rainbow of Magnolia Landscaping donated approximately $10,000 of labor. The City of Seattle Neighborhood Matching Fund awarded the project a $5,000 grant, and the National Garden Club's Plant America project awarded a $2,000 grant. In total, the project cost $7,000 with a donated $10,000 of labor. The group began meeting with the station's firefighters to plan the project in August of 2023, and began working on the garden build in January of 2024. The work was completed this spring.

The fire station exemplifies the streamline modern style of art deco architecture that emerged in the 1930s. Notable, smooth stucco walls, black brick binding and rounded edges. The emphasis is on the horizontality and simplicity of the building, and the windows are punched in without ornament and embody a shallow marquess curve along the façade. The planning team had a goal of enhancing the historic building through the landscaping, and the finalized design reflects the architecture through the black and red color scheme. The landscape includes a public artwork display by Kenny Schneider called "Hot Cha Cha". It's an interactive kinetic sculpture enveloped within a case that includes 66 identical stainless-steel firefighters, each with movable arms and legs. All of the figures dance and march when a passerby turns a handle on the side of the case.