LETTERS TO THE EDITOR as published in The Guardian, Feb 24, 2009
Editor:
The ease with which some folks are ready to spend other people's money can be breathtaking. Take, for example, the old Dominion Building.
Here's a dated structure that federal government tenants began abandoning years ago. There are rumours the old building is loaded with asbestos insulation. There is also talk the aged structure is unstable, which accounts for the braces on the exterior. An energy audit would almost certainly produce a failing grade. Despite these warning signs, there are some folks who want taxpayers to plow as much as $30 million into the salvage of this worn-out hand-me-down.
Here's the question. Is the Dominion Building worth saving? The architectural design is uninspiring. It can't qualify as a heritage property. And the structure has problems, which will be staggeringly expensive to fix.
By contrast, the estimated cost of demolition is about $2 million. Then what? Islanders can seize the opportunity to create something important and exciting and new on the site of something old and threadbare and lamentable.
Aubrey Bell,
New London
1 comment:
I agree that this building is pretty muhc nothing more then a concrete monolith that seems to stick out like a sore thumb in the Charlottetown landscape (kind of like the Arts Centre as well). 60's architecture was never that appealing, with it's boxy fetish and lust for concrete, and is doubly so in a skyline where most of the buildings are over a century old (and more then likely in better condition). If I had the cash, that thing would be rubble and something more fitting would be erected in it's place.
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