Buildings
Rudolph’s Riverview High School Threatened with Demolition
(archrecord.construction.com - 02/28/06)
By David
Sokol
 |
 |
| Photo © Anastasia
Bowen |
In February, Florida’s Sarasota
County School Board announced plans to demolish Riverview
High School. The open, Modernist structure of concrete and
glass-on-steel frame was designed by architect Paul Rudolph
in 1958. Sarasota School of Architecture author John Howey,
FAIA, says the building possessed “a subtle poetry,”
and exhibited the best of the regionalist movement’s
blend of modernist forms and climate sensitivity.
According to the school board, Riverview
can no longer be maintained, partially because of changes
made over the life of the building. Chuck Collins, director
of construction for the Sarasota County School Board, points
out that the re-worked air conditioning system is already
out of date, that pipes and wires block light coming into
hallways, and that the school is far too small to accommodate
the school’s 3,000 students. Security is difficult given
Rudolph's open design. Furthermore, officials want a new school
to accommodate larger common areas and new technology spaces.
Martie Lieberman, Board Secretary for the Sarasota Architectural
Foundation, is fighting to save the building, and is astonished
at the negative effects of so-called school improvements.
“They substituted flat roofs for pitched roofs, misplaced
air conditioning equipment—they never consulted anybody
about integrity.” Howie, who also sits on the Architectural
Foundation, says the organization is considering forming a
not-for-profit body that will fund the shortfall between new
construction and rehabilitation. In the meantime, the school
district is preparing to construct a new building, designed
by local firm BMK Architects, immediately adjacent to the
Rudolph structure on the 42-acre site. The predecessor will
be demolished upon completion, in 2008, and will be replaced
with a parking lot.
|
|
