If you happened to drive by 35th/Holden within the past hour and wondered why a fire station was on the lawn of the old house across from the Chevron station – Engine 37 was temporarily on special duty, making a visit to its future home, where ceremonial groundbreaking was celebrated for the new Fire Station 37, which will look something like this (photograph replaced Tuesday night with digital copy of rendering):

Not only was the Station 37 team on hand —

— so were Mayor Nickels, Fire Chief Gregory Dean, West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, and Brenda Bauer, who handles projects like this as director of Fleets and Facilities:

The mayor explained why this particular fire-station project is a special one for him personally:

Councilmember Rasmussen wondered if a somewhat secret feature of the old station would be moved to the new one:

The crowd also heard a few words from Pablo Lambinicio, chair of the Delridge District Council:

Other well-known West Seattleites in attendance included the peninsula’s two Neighborhood Services Coordinators, Ron Angeles (Delridge office) and Stan Lock (Junction office). We talked with project managers afterward; right now, the city’s evaluating bids for the construction but hasn’t awarded a contract yet, so don’t expect to see backhoes pulling up any day now. Once the new Station 37 is built and occupied (second half of next year), the city will sell the current 84-year-old Station 37, which must be preserved because it’s an official city landmark:

The new site is a few blocks south of the old one at 35th/Othello; the new station will be about 9,000 square feet, more than double the size of the old one, and the project cost has been estimated at about $6 million. ADDED 8 PM: The city tells us the top three bidders, whose bids are being reviewed right now, are Harmatta Construction Inc., Kirtley – Cole Associates, and OPUS.