INTRO: Detroit Schools chief Robert Bobb is under court order to stop his plans to change the curriculum. But his plan to demolish 14 school buildings is moving ahead. Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus reports.
On Monday, the Detroit Public Schools, under emergency financial manager Robert Bobb, announced a new institute for construction. Students will learn building skills. The money will come from the multi-million dollar bond voters approved last year. Last month, Bobb announced his 5 year plan. It includes demolition.
“Last year we closed 29 schools, saving $14 million annually. We determined that we could not close buildings as they were closed in the past. So this time we removed all of the materials from the buildings, sometimes successfully, I might add, and sometimes unsuccessfully. But there are buildings that are school buildings that will be demolished in the next few weeks you’ll find desks, chairs and student records all over the place. What a shame. What a shame.”
Fourteen schools will be demolished by June. With more to go down in the future. Many were built in the 1950′s and 60′s. They lack the detail and strength of earlier buildings. But many schools are from the teens and twenties. Take Breitmeyer Elementary. It’s on the west side of I-75, right across from the Bing Group building. Near Holbrook. Real estate developer Joel Landy came to take a look.
“I’m very worried, we’re all very worried that our historic structures in Detroit are being thrown away.”
Before the Beal Demolition Company sealed it for asbestos removal 2 weeks ago, the back door was open. You could see graffiti and light switches ripped from walls. A sea of papers. Cardboard boxes. Bed sheets. A Detroit Federation of Teachers handbook. A plastic globe of the world, chopped in half. One wall had a poster from DPS, operation education, vision, mission, building brighter futures. In the grass was tossed a textbook from 1972. The history of Detroit, Wayne County and Michigan.
A backhoe is parked next to Sherrard Elementary School. A man with a Beal Demolition t-shirt approaches Joel Landy. This reporter turns on a video camera. The man turns his back and walks away. Landy is 57. He owns homes, apartments and schools in Detroit. 50 buildings in total. Many he bought for a few dollars. He’s invested $20 million dollars just in old schools.
“Demolition contractors on these jobs are not my favorite friends. They don’t really like me. I’ve taken several jobs from them when we’ve renovated the buildings and reused them.”
Joel Landy has opened the gates at the Burton School on Cass Ave near his house. Detroit Public Schools sold him the building last year. Now it’s a collection of art studios and even a movie house. Landy says the Robert Bobb administration has been more willing to sell buildings than its predecessor. 75 or listed for sale on their website.
“They are open to any kind of offer. They do want to see the buildings reused. There’s that fine line though. In the meantime I don’t want to demolish the structures. I want to stabilize and store them. That’s I think the big difference in our philosophy. They think it’s cheaper to demolish the building and not have to think about it. And I don’t agree. There’s no one clamoring for the vacant land. And there’s no reason at this point to spend the money to demolish these structures.”
The pre World War 2 buildings are typically reinforced concrete. 6-8 inches of it in the floor. Landy says they stay warm when heated and cold when cooled.
“They were built with tunnels and passageways and shafts around every room, over the ceilings under the floors. You could rewire, reheat, do anything you want to make a modern building out of this reinforced concrete structure with its historic facade.”
Back at the Breitmeyer school Tuesday evening, Mike McCleer was sitting in his car with a sketch pad. McCleer lives and practices architecture in Detroit. McCleer says the school was designed by Wirt Rowland and built it in 1915. Rowland designed the world renowned Guardian Building downtown.
“It’s a wonderful school because he used unlimited pallet of materials. The brick, the limestone, the terracotta freeze band running over the top and the tile in the gables. It’s a tragedy that this particular school is being torn down.”
Many people call them eyesores. But preservationists say buildings like this should be moth balled. Vandal proofing and installing alarms costs $50,000. That’s cheaper than paying $500,000 to tear them down.
There is a possible way to remediate the decision to demolish older schools. School construction/demolition does not go through local building code review. Review of all building projects is done by the State of Michigan. The state could require the reviewing agency to evaluate projects in light of Section 106 impact which applies to federal projects. By evaluating the impact on environmental and historic resources, decisions might take a different course.
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