The Queens Hospital Emergency Medical Services Station reverses the entropy of the existing site and releases the restless response latent in the program. The double bar structure rises up and out of the site countering the downward slope of the topography. The diagonal form pulses with the anticipation of movement, embodying the programmatic need for immediate action, and energizing the community with a sense of engagement. The tension created by the double mirror of the sloping situation paired with the programmatic need for immediate action gives the building its name, restless response.
The FDNY plays an all important role in maintaining an ever vigilant presence to combat the fear of small and large scale emergency within the city. When response time, measured in minutes, can be the difference between life and death, the EMS building needed to express the ever ready presence of the Fire Department and the implicit sophistication of advanced medical rescue technology. The signature FDNY-red overhead garage doors denote a civic presence in the neighborhood appropriate to the vital role that the FDNY has in the everyday life of all New Yorkers.
