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Fire Station 156 will provide fire protection and emergency medical safety services to Santa Clarita and nearby unincorporated areas of northern Los Angeles County. The 11,000 sq. ft. facility will include a community meeting room, two equipment bays, dormitories and a kitchen. Station 156 will be complete 2010.

Artist Matt Dehaemers has designed a fire pit for the station's exterior courtyard. The surface is richly colored and patterned in lithocrete, and the "pit" is a carved-out boulder. Artist Eric Powell has designed custom laser-cut steel gates, based on a bird's eye view of the neighborhood street layouts.

About the Artists: Matt Dehaemers received his B.F.A. from Creighton University and his M.F.A from the University of Wisconsin. Dehaemers has exhibited his artwork since 1996 and has been commissioned for various public art projects throughout the United States. His projects were recognized four consecutive years (2004-2007) by the Public Art Network's "Year in Review," a prestigious, annual selection of the best new public artworks in the nation. Dehaemers writes, "I want to create a space that honors the story of the LA County firefighter representing aspects of honor, duty, courage, compassion and perseverance, while creating a space for communal gathering and solitary, peaceful reflection."

Eric Powell currently resides and works in Berkeley, CA where he was commissioned by the Berkeley Arts Commission to create the Mandala Gates for the City of Berkeley Corporation Yard. His work has been featured in various museums and galleries, such as the Oakland Museum and the Artscape Gallery in Walnut Creek, CA. He is well known for his metal gates which he says, "...are among the most noted and public aspects of my work. I have made gates for cities including Madison, Wisconsin, Oakland and Berkeley, California and also for many historical buildings and private homeowners."

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