Berkeleyside exclusive: The Old Gymnasium on the Berkeley High School campus, a landmarked building originally designed by William Hays, has fallen into disrepair — see slideshow above — and the School District is suggesting it be demolished. Noted Berkeley architect Henrik Bull has a different suggestion: It is easy to understand why the School Board of the Berkeley Unified School District has decided it wants to demolish the Old Gymnasium at Berkeley High School. Walking through the building is a depressing experience. Paint is peeling, many windows are broken. Large garbage cans are scattered around the lofty upper floor gymnasium spaces to catch water from myriad leaks. But demolishing buildings can be enormously wasteful of energy and natural resources. In addition, in 2007, the Old Gymnasium, which was designed by a pair of noted local architects, was granted landmark status. On March 15, 2008, a group of 22 volunteers, mostly architects, engineers and landscape architects, met at the High School to study the question of whether the Old Gym could be reasonably adapted to fulfill the needs of the school. The group was divided into three teams which came up with several interesting ideas. A report was written about the […]
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