Rudolph’s Riverview High School Threatened with Demolition

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'>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of construction for the Sarasota County School Board, points out that the re-worked air conditioning system is already out of date, that pipes and wires block light coming into hallways, and that the school is far too small to accommodate the school’s 3,000 students.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.

David Sokol

Fonte: Architectural Record