Explanation
BACKGROUND: The 109 North Front Street building is functionally obsolete suffering from a number of structural and mechanical deficiencies. It is highly energy inefficient, and due to its multi-level design with narrow and uneven floor plates cannot be renovated in a cost efficient manner to create a modern office environment suitable for the provision of city services. Under a separate ordinance a contract for the demolition is to be authorized; however, the demolition contract does not provide for the salvage of any materials that may be of historical or architectural interest or value. "Architectural salvage" activities differ somewhat from those activities undertaken by a demolition contractor. The demolition contractor is typically interested in items such as copper piping and scrap metal while an architectural salvage contractor is likely to have interest in items such as interior doors and transoms, door hardware, lighting fixtures, cabinet doors, bathroom fixtures and interior trim.
One of the many environmental challenges facing large metropolitan areas is the disposal of construction debris in a safe and economical manner. A large part of the waste stream is building demolition debris. Despite the best efforts to find adaptive reuses for older structures to avoid demolition, sometimes it is the only viable recourse. Though not competitively bid the City wants to ensure that items of interest or potential architectural value are removed from the Building prior to its demolition. As well, the City has the goal of avoiding further material disposal into construction and demolition facilities that would otherwise be of interest locally. Additionally, there is a possibility of securing additional LEED certification credits based on the items salvaged from the building.
Columbus Architectural Salvage Ltd. has extensive experience with salvage requests from other entities, such as The Ohio State University and Capital University, and is designat...
Click here for full text