Torre, Susana

Torre, Susana
100 Goeller Boulevard Columbus, IN 47201
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Susana Torre is associated in Columbus, Indiana, with Fire Station No. 5, completed in 1987. An Argentine-born architect, critic, and educator, Torre is known for work that connects architecture to cultural context, social life, and feminist design thinking. In Columbus, Fire Station No. 5 became nationally significant as the first fire station in the United States designed specifically to integrate women firefighters, replacing dormitory-style sleeping quarters with individual rooms and shifting shared space to the kitchen. Its overlapping-square plan and references to barns and silos also respond to the site’s rural context on the edge of the city. Torre later served as Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art, chaired the Architecture and Environmental Design Department at Parsons School of Design, and directed the Architecture Program at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Columbus, Indiana projects
• Fire Station No. 5, 100 Goeller Boulevard, 1987.

Honors
• Henry Bacon Medal for memorial architecture.
• Harleston Parker Medal.

Work in Columbus