New 30 Year Future for Former School

FTLComm - Tisdale - May 27, 98
For many years this building served as the primary school for Tisdale but with the reorganisation of Tisdale's schools that came with the construction of the Junior and Senior high school combined facility it became redundant. But now it is time to recycle.

In a discussion with the architect in charge of the project he pointed out that the refit will give the building a thirty-year lease on life as it is remade from a building of classrooms to office space for the local health district board.

In general the building is in excellent shape and the modifications that are being undertaken involve reorganising the work space and some floor resurfacing in preparation for new carpeting.
North American buildings have tended to have very limited lifetimes in comparison with structures in other parts of the world. The architect pointed out that in medical facilities even excellent buildings rapidly become outmoded because of the rapid changes in utilisation as technology and operational strategies shift with uncommon speed making well built buildings no longer useful as their function is in itself redundant.

One of the currious features of Western North America is the movement of structures from place to place. This is a unique feature of this part of the world as we have seen in recent times even elevators occassionally are moved from one location to another.

This project is an excellent and conservation related project that shows vision and practicality.