Demolition of former middle school underway

<p><strong><em>A</em></strong>s the sun came up on an unusually chilly March day, the remnants of a 69-year-old school started to come down.</p><p>Crews blew out the south door of the former Greenwood Middle School Tuesday morning, kicking off a strategic demolition south of the city’s core that is expected to last about four months.</p><p>Last month, the redevelopment commission approved spending up to $1.9 million to tear down the bulk of the building at 523 S. Madison Avenue, and save a fairly recent addition, which includes the school’s fieldhouse and gymnasium.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>The demolition project, which was awarded to Myers Construction Management Inc., is expected to cost about $1,734,000, but includes a 9.6 percent contingency in case of any additional costs. That money will come from the east side tax-increment financing, or TIF, fund.</p><p>“Any time you’re dealing with an old building that has had multiple additions, you don’t know exactly what you’re going to encounter,” said Kevin Steinmetz, capital projects manager.</p><p>Initially, the demolition was slated for the end of 2018. But that date was continuously pushed back due to unforeseen circumstances.</p><p>So far, despite several changes and delays, crews have been able to keep the cost within that approved amount. Now that the environmental study is complete, asbestos has been removed and utilities disconnected, they don’t expect many more surprises, Steinmetz said.</p><p>City officials purchased the property a few years ago for $1 million. Initially, they estimated demolition would cost another $1 million. But that did not include saving a big chunk of the school and redeveloping it, Steinmetz said previously.</p><p>They also weren’t aware of how deeply rooted the building’s utility problems were. The system was added to and rerouted multiple times over the years, with every addition to the school, but never updated. Utility crews had to cap all of those and create new service points, which added to the cost, he said.</p><p>The new estimate also included any unforeseen environmental problems, such as elevator fluids that may have leaked and damaged the structure, he said.</p><p>But the most significant problem so far has been asbestos, a natural mineral Steinmetz suspects was used during original construction of the building seven decades ago, he said. Crews found it under multiple layers of carpet and tile. The city hired Delta Demolition to dispose of it properly.</p><p>The most significant delays have been due to utility companies. Each had to sign off on the demolition, which took about two months, Steinmetz said.</p><p>Safety is also a concern considering the building’s close proximity to a residential neighborhood, library and park.</p><p>A 6-foot fence has been set up around the entire perimeter — from Madison Avenue to Meridian Street — to keep people, especially kids, away from the site during demolition.</p><p>“(The fence) goes around the entire area that will be demoed. Still, obviously, we’re asking people to take caution. We’ve notified the chief of police and they’re keeping an extra eye on the area. With city buildings so close to it, especially the two churches — we’ve had conversations with both — in general, we’re just asking people to be diligent,” Steinmetz said. “The fact that we’ve got about 20 acres to maneuver around, we don’t foresee any problems.”</p><p>Work, including stabilizing the gym, is expected to last about four months.</p><p>“We still plan to be done in May. That hasn’t changed,” Steinmetz said.</p><p>Crews will start on the south side of the building and work their way north, to the fieldhouse.</p><p>Once demo is complete, the fieldhouse will be nothing more than a shell of a building that is expected to be redeveloped starting later this year, Steinmetz said.</p><p>The city’s parks and recreation department will decide how the gymnasium will be developed. They are working with Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf, an architecture and design firm, to come up with plans for the space, which will likely be similar to the city’s community center, but will offer different activities.</p><p>Further private development is planned for the rest of the property. It will likely include more than 450 apartments, 130 townhouses, 75,000 square feet of retail and office space, nearly 10 acres of new or upgraded open space, according to Mayor Mark Myers’ vision for the property. The city hopes to start development later this year.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="523 South Madison: A brief history" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>The historic building at 523 S. Madison Avenue was added to repeatedly over the years, time and time again outgrowing the student body that needed it as Greenwood’s population grew rapidly.</p><p>Built in 1949, at a time when about 3,000 people called Greenwood home, the six-room building originally served as the city’s high school. An earlier high school, which was built south of the historic Isom Elementary School, burned down in a fire eight years earlier.</p><p>In 1954, 12 rooms, a library and a gymnasium were added to the high school on South Madison.</p><p>In 1959, 18 more classrooms and a cafeteria were added.</p><p>About a decade later, as the city’s population reached nearly 12,000, a new high school was built off Smith Valley Road, and the building on South Madison became Greenwood Middle School.</p><p>In the 1990s, a large fieldhouse and gymnasium were tacked on to the north end of the middle school. The current plan is to save that portion of the school and redevelop it into an extension of the city’s community center.</p><p>The middle school closed its doors in the summer of 2017 and moved into a new $27 million building on the west side of the city, off Averitt Road near Freedom Springs.</p><p>The city purchased the building from the school for $1 million.</p><p>The Greenwood Police Department moved into the old school on South Madison while its headquarters underwent major renovations last year.</p><p>The building has been vacant for several months while city staff, engineers, environmental experts and construction crews worked to prepare it for demolition. </p><p>Demolition of the historic building started on Tuesday and is expected to last about four months.</p><p><em>Source: Greenwood Public Library</em></p>[sc:pullout-text-end]