Firefighters at Des Moines Fire Station No. 4 are already putting the station’s new training tower into active use. Designed as an integral part of the facility, the tower is now supporting recruit instruction, company drills, and specialized operations training—marking an exciting milestone as the project continues to serve the department beyond day-to-day emergency response.
Purpose-built to support multiple modes of instruction, the tower accommodates recruit academy exercises, company-level drills, and specialized operations training in a single integrated environment. Crews are using the tower for ground and aerial ladder deployments, above-grade hose evolutions, high-angle rope rescue scenarios, and standpipe and sprinkler training that replicates real high-rise fireground conditions. The adjacent training grounds further expand those capabilities, allowing trench and confined space exercises to occur alongside tower evolutions—supporting multiple concurrent training scenarios.
A particularly important aspect of the tower is how it brings realistic vertical training into everyday use. Interior stairwells, mezzanine levels, standpipe infrastructure, and exterior access points allow firefighters to rehearse the physical and tactical demands of multistory operations in a controlled setting. This kind of repetition builds muscle memory, strengthens coordination, and improves readiness before crews encounter these challenges in the field.
For Substance Architecture, the tower represents an important idea in public safety design: facilities can actively contribute to preparedness, not just house it. When training is embedded into the architecture itself, the building becomes part of the department’s mission—supporting learning, resilience, and long-term operational excellence.
With firefighters already putting the tower to work, Fire Station No. 4 is demonstrating how thoughtful design can support not only response, but continuous readiness. It is rewarding to see the facility functioning as intended: not simply as a station, but as a place where training and service advance together.
Photos by Chris Boeke
