Preservation or Parking? Two Takes on Riverview High
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06.23.08
We previously whined about the imminent demolition of Paul Rudolph's Riverview High School in Sarasota, with its "melding of Modern modularity and technology with sensitive siting, daylighting, natural ventilation, and aggressive shading against the relentless sunshine." Two updates:
"If they can see beyond the broken relic and the parking lot, and envision their future to include a beautiful, high-tech, site specific building that supports the local culture, then everyone will win." ::Metropolis
“Riverview High School is a fantastic prototype of what today we call green architecture,” said the architect Charles Gwathmey, who is overseeing a renovation of the Art and Architecture Building at Yale. “He was so far ahead of his time, experimenting with sun screens and cross-ventilation. If it’s torn down, I feel badly for architecture.” ::New York Times
See Also
Another Paul Rudolph Bites the Dust: Sarasota's Riverview High School
I graduated from Riverview High school five years ago and strongly support the demolition of the building
It's funny that all those that support saving RHS never attended the school in it's modern form.
When I attended the building was clearly showing its age--The building had been retrofitted way too many times. The inside had been covered with exposed pipes and conduits for sprinklers, fire alarms, internet, power, air conditioning. Add to that poorly done renovations for ADA compliance. It was an ugly mess on the inside, plain and simple.
The hallways would flood when it rained. Mold has a major problem in many of the classrooms. Several classrooms were closed off due to mold and water.
The bottom line was that the building was too old to be brought up to code in a reasonable fashion. The design made affordable retrofitting of the building impossible.