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Berkeley High ‘B’ building could be a community asset
The Berkeley Daily Planet received this letter addressed to the school board and superintendent of Berkeley.
I’m pleasantly surprised to read and see the smoke damaged building B now undergoes “deconstruction.” I’m a little worried that the community had apparently no input into the decision-making process.
Interestingly (to me at least), I suggest to Jack McLaughlin that it might go. (His response: That’s what I like about you ... Always thinking.”)
It looks like a hybrid steel frame and cast in place concrete. My question is: Could the steel frame remain and be employed in a mode architects might term “adaptive reuse”? Even if the concrete at first floor has to remain in part, the skeleton might become a landscape element of grace and value. Adobe stucco over the concrete and paint over steel could produce a lovable “ruin” and shade could be added in the form of a slat roof covered with flowering vines in some area for outdoor cafeteria seating, for example.
Whatever you do there, the space will become a major asset to the campus. Can the floor be saved? Is it a concrete slab? Maybe you’ve already hired a landscape architect to take care of the area... But if not, I hope you do.
Terry Cochrell
Berkeley
