We've spoken to an architect in Florida who says the demolition of Paul Rudolph's Riverview High School is slated for June or July, unless someone can send "lawyers, guns and money" (anyone know that song?)
The school closes for students in May, and they need to get the furniture and fixtures out and do an asbestos test before they can begin to take it down.
You can see photos of the building that is replacing it here. Paul Rudolph's famed structure is going to be razed to make way for a parking lot for this monstrosity.
We've also received emails from past students who are going to be walking through the school for one last time before its torn down. With luck, we'll fly down to take one first (and last) look to see the place and take photos.
Apparently there is still affection for the building by people who remember it before the administration decided to let the building fall apart in order to prove they needed a bigger facility.
Diane Lewis, who submitted a proposal to save the building, is still working to raise the estimated $250,000 to halt the demolition. If anyone has an idea where this can come from, contact us at information@paulrudolph.org and we'll put you in touch.
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I graduated from RHS in 1979. My sister graduated from RHS (1983) and so did my brother (1987) and uncle (1968).
The general consensus from only a short time after the school was built (and after the Paul Rudolph hype wore off) was that the building was a poor design for a school in Florida.
The reasons for demolition were many- the halls did flood every time it rained and students did track dirty water everywhere.
The rooms were hot and some of the features of the building were downright dangerous. More than on student fell from the second floor railing down the well the the first floor slab when they lost their footing while attempting to sit on top of the railing.
The original building was also designed around the idea of about 500 students. Well, Sarasota was growing rapidly in the 1960s and 70s and the student body rapidly grew to over 1800. Many of these were construction workers dependents who shall we say tended to be more "knaves" than "knights".
The total of six porcelain conveniences in the two rest rooms (one boys-one girls) were woefully inadequate. Boys tended to either knock a hole in the cinder block of the inner walls of the rest rooms and use these as extra urinals, or use the sinmks, or use the storage bays for the iron gates which blocked the ends of the halls when the school was closed. As a result the entire school reeked of urine all the time.
(cont) The many flat roofs and slab "sunshades "were a constant invitation to pranks and foolishness.
Two students could boost another student onto the roof of the administration building or onto the hanging sunshade slabs where they would disrupt the class in progress on the second floor by doing foolish dances and making funny noises, etc.
The bays that stored the gates were also at times used for "carnal contact" between students....
Overall, the school was hot, filthy and smelly and covered with a fine layer of dust from the athletic fields to the south and southwest. This dust turned to fine silty mud and blocked all drains when it rained. This mud was tracked everywhere covering all floors. When this fine Florida dust mud dries it hardens like concrete.
The school was a disaster from day one.
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