That's some roofing job going on at the Old Administration Building on the campus of Fresno City College. The tile roof is being stripped off the venerable structure as part of the ongoing renovation of this community treasure. The tiles will be cleaned and reinstalled, along with replacements for any broken or damaged tiles.
I live just a block away from the OAB, and I wandered over to the site this past weekend to check it out. It's a real delight to see all the work being done. When it's finished, the restored building will add about 100,000 square feet of classroom, office and meeting space to the campus.
It's been a long time coming. The building, opened in 1916, was shuttered in 1976 because it didn't meet state safety standards. For years preservationists battled to save the historic structure from a campus administration that wanted very badly to tear it down and replace it with a more modern -- read "antiseptic and boring" -- structure. Eventually the preservationists prevailed, and voters passed a bond measure crafted, in part, to fund the restoration.
Rising construction costs and low initial estimates have driven the cost above the original $41 million price tag. There's a lesson there: Restoring the old building 20 years ago would have saved as ton of money, and the college would have had the use of all that space since then.
But better late than never.
How does that fait accompli generate discussion other than great, and echo the "better late than never".
Besides, what I have learned of the beehive, the majority of participants are not intensely interested in academia, building and anything else.
Just look at Mc Cain Social Security blog. I thought cockfights were illegal.
I used to stare out those windows and daydream during Drama 101...echoooos