Students Help Design, Build Alabama Fire Station

"If the new fire station in Hale County's Newbern (pop. 231) had been designed and built in Chicago, the towering translucent tower of steel and wood, galvanized aluminum and high-tech plastic likely would have cost $4 million, a visiting architect estimated.

But four architecture students from Auburn University's Rural Studio designed it and spent two years building it, combining $15,000 to $20,000 raised in Newbern with foundation donations and $100,000 in donated materials they raised themselves."