Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 10, 1995 TAG: 9505100089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Tuesday night, the board awarded a $5.5 million contract to Nielsen Construction Co. of Harrisonburg for the combined renovation and reconstruction project. The work will begin in June.
Razing the front part of the 67-year-old Jackson school will destroy a building that has special meaning for thousands of Southeast residents, said Lisa Updike.
"The parents and grandparents of many children in the school today attended there," she said. "It has been part of the community's life."
The neighborhood shouldn't have to give up its architectural history in order to get a renovated school, Updike told the School Board.
"I was shocked and dismayed to learn that part of the building will be torn down," she said. "I had assumed that it would take the form of a renovation like that of the elementary schools."
Updike said that school officials in the past have shown little consideration for the neighborhood's feelings. The old Belmont and Jamison elementary schools were razed in the 1970s, and Fallon Park Elementary was built to replace them.
"Some argue that Southeast should be happy with a school with cable-ready classrooms, but it shouldn't have to give up its history," she said.
School officials defended the razing plan, saying it was necessary to provide suitable classrooms and laboratories for a modern middle school.
"We are sympathetic to preserving old buildings," said Richard Kelley, assistant superintendent for operations.
"But in this case, preserving a building for the sake of history would be a disservice to the students," Kelley said.
The old classroom wing of the building has load-bearing walls that could not be moved to provide smaller rooms. The building also has high ceilings and wasted space that could not have been eliminated by renovation, he said.
If the old building had been renovated, four elevators would have been required to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Kelley said. Spending more money on elevators and other renovations would have left less for laboratories and other modern equipment, he said.
Kelley said the reconstructed part of the building that will face Ninth Street will be similar in design, height and shape to the old structure. The other two wings, which house the gymnasium and auditorium, will be renovated.
School officials said the Jackson school is not unique architecturally, but William Whitwell, an architectural historian, said he hates to see it torn down because it is representative of that era in school buildings.
Updike said the Southeast residents have collected the signatures of more than 100 people who oppose the demolition. She complained that school officials had kept the neighborhood in the dark about the plan to raze part of the school.
But Kelley said that the school staff, Parent-Teacher Association and neighborhood had been involved in the project. School officials appointed a 10-member building committee last year that included neighborhood representatives, he said.
Kelley said the plans were outlined at a public meeting last winter, and architects explained the reasons for razing part of the school. But Updike said that some people who attended the meeting have told her they never realized that the front of the school would be razed.
The school's entrance will be moved from Ninth Street to Montrose Avenue. An entry plaza, along with a bus loading and unloading area, will be built on the Montrose side.
by CNB