A wall crumbled into surging dust at General Gordon elementary in Kitsilano Tuesday.
The more than century-old school is to be completely flattened as early as Friday to pave the way for a replacement school that could better withstand an earthquake.
“There was a large clamour before my time to save the building, and the way that it came down was real evidence of why it was such a seismic hazard,” said Jay Hiscox, project manager in planning and facilities for the Vancouver School Board. “You try to avoid the building pancaking in on itself and that’s how they’re demolishing it. They’re triggering a catastrophic failure.”
The total cost of the demolition and school construction project is $14.7 million. Hiscox said it would have been “many times” that amount to retain and strengthen the old brick structure.
Javier Campos, president of Heritage Vancouver, said on close inspection, the non-profit society couldn’t justify a seismic upgrade of the old school.
Heritage Vancouver worked with the Vancouver School Board and other interested parties to consider community uses for three schools: General Gordon, Queen Mary and Strathcona elementary. Donald Luxton, the former president of Heritage Vancouver, says the process started when Gordon Campbell was premier. General Gordon and Queen Mary rest in what was Campbell’s riding. Luxton says the collaborative review was a success. Heritage schools Queen Mary and Strathcona are being retained and seismically upgraded.
Heritage Vancouver constantly tries to talk to the school board about future seismic projects, said Campos, who believes the society is treated like it’s treading on school board turf. He and Luxton acknowledged the board faces tight budgets and enrolment pressures.
More than 40 more schools in Vancouver require seismic mitigation and Heritage Vancouver wants a process established to collaboratively and realistically assess their merit for preservation.
Campos has been told the school board has deferred maintenance on schools, knowing they will be torn down.
“So the cost of upgrading them and repairing them from a safety standard is very high and so it skews the decision [whether to strengthen or demolish and replace them],” he said.
“One of the things that just shocked me is how much power existing principals have deciding whether or not a building’s going to be torn down or not,” Luxton said. “Also certain communities want a new school… Well by the time the building’s done, their kids aren’t even at that school. Nobody’s taking a long-term view of this.”
DEMOLITION TO DUST
(Video courtesy of Adrian Cunningham)
Crews stripped General Gordon of anything, such as lighting, that could be reused, according to Hiscox.
“Lockers, there was a lot of clamour to reuse them,” he said. “A lot of them were either anchored in the wall, so we couldn’t take them out, or they were so old that they had lead paint on them.”
He said windows couldn’t be reused because they don’t meet building standard and code requirements.
Hazardous materials including lead paint and asbestos were removed from the school before anything came down.
Anyone awaiting the sight of a wrecking ball will be disappointed. Crews are removing columns in sequence so the walls fold in on themselves.
Metal, wood and concrete are to be recycled.
Wrought iron columns will be reused in landscaping and granite from the old stairs is also to be reused. The old bricks are being salvaged to construct a heritage wall at the corner of West Sixth Avenue and
Bayswater Street and potentially to be sold in a school fundraiser. Interested parties should contact General Gordon at 604-713-5403.
The school board doesn’t want residents clambering around the demolition site searching for mementoes, which has happened. Hiscox said someone started a “little campfire” on the second floor of the school Tuesday night.
Demolition is to be completed in February and construction of a seismic replacement school begins March 1. Staff and students are working in portables at Queen Elizabeth elementary annex. The new General Gordon is expected to open in fall 2016.
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