Who Knew? Fire Station #2 Tower is a “Sun-Tracker”
Decatur Metro | December 27, 2010
I was aware that the glass tower atop Fire Station #2 in Oakhurst had solar panels on it, but I certainly didn’t know this fun-fact.
From the Fire Station #2 Fact Sheet…
The Fire Station No. 2 Tower
A society that values sustainability will have a strong sense of its dependence on the planet Earth
The glass tower at Fire Station No. 2 is a ‘sun-tracker’. The blue color band and the red ‘2’ that can be seen moving across the glass of the tower are both created by the sun passing through colored glass mounted on the tower.
The blue band is the tower’s ‘gnomon’. A gnomon is traditionally the raised triangle on a sun dial that casts a shadow to tell the time and day. The red ‘2’, of course, represents the name of the Fire Station. The sun to the south of the tower strikes these stained glass surfaces and projects their color onto the face of the white glass. Each hour of the day and each day of the year the blue band and color red glass will demonstrate the height and angle of the most important star.
Cool!
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Hurray that the recycling is going to run as long as it is. Sometimes it ends too early for us tree-challenged folks. It’s such a big accomplishment for us to get a tree, get it to fit in a stand, level it, put lights on, then over-decorate it, that we tend to want to keep it as long as possible. But it’s so much more convenient to recycle at Agnes Scott then Home Depot and I am more trusting that something good and recyclable will happen to it.
And besides, Christmas lasts until Epiphany, January 6.
After the first of the year, you can walk by the Decatur Rec and smell the fresh scent of pine. They mulch around the building. It smells awesome!
Mine’s coming down WAY before the 8th of January! But we mulch ours ourselves anyway…
[Odd that tree recycling comments have been posted under news about fire station #2]
Nice to know the glass tower has a purpose because the architecture of the station certainly doesn’t fit into the character of Oakhurst. What’s wrong with an old fashioned firehouse look? I’ve seen it done in old Norcross. And I was initially excited as the new Kirkwood station was constructed with a retro look but then they spoiled it by adding modern art colors to the outside of the brick.
I like the modern look to Fire Station #2.
I think it fits the character of Oakhurst quite well. Everything doesn’t have to look feau-historic.
It’s pretty basic mid-century, postmodern institutional. How is that any less “feau-historic” than what Sharron’s talking about?
Emulating the 50s is no less retro than emulating the 20s.
What is wrong with a good modern architectural designed building in an older, and architecturally significant historical neighborhood? I thing it looks great. To attempt to “fit in” with the old design usually leads to a Disney land look.
You are aboslutely correct Rick, which is why so many people in Oakhurst opposed that group that was trying to designate all of Oakhurst a historic district.
WordPress is doing something really annoying and replacing posts instead of creating new ones it seems. I had a Decatur tree recycling post up and now it’s been replaced by this one.
Looks like I’ll have to repost that too! #^&$*#&@*^#*@
Or maybe it’s a Christmas elf still hanging around?! Last week a post disappeared too…
(For a quick minute, you had TWO tree recyling posts up– the other one had an 11ish time. Pointing it out just in case you missed it & it’s somehow need-to-know info.)
Thanks. I don’t really know what’s going on but I no longer think it’s operator-error.
Hey– I KNOW I posted under the recycling thread– I also see other posts that were there when I did mine, but here they are! Odd, indeed…
The Norcross fire station is a dud. Oakhurst #2 wins hands down!
Cool tracker design! Plus, I learned a new word: “gnomon.” Thanks!