Riverview Building Close to Being Saved

Harold Bubil has commented on progress made this past week toward saving the Paul Rudolph designed Riverview high School. The school board is in the process of rebuilding the entire campus, but has allowed proposals for saving the Rudolph building if the cost is not increased and the timetable is not delayed.

Harold's column says in part:

There's still a long way to go, but the effort to save the Paul Rudolph-designed buildings at Riverview High took a big step this week.

The Sarasota Architectural Foundation's Revive Rudolph's Riverview committee presented proposals to the Sarasota County School Board, which is building a new complex at the 42-acre site on Proctor Road.

Five architect-developer teams participated in the Request for Proposals process; one team withdrew. The four remaining proposals were ranked in order and presented to the School Board on Tuesday.

The first-ranked proposal, which called for an adaptive use that would join the historic and new RHS buildings, was dismissed by School Board members because it did not fit the criteria set forth by the board: the Rudolph project could not delay or add cost to the new RHS project.

That leaves the second-ranked proposal -- something called the Riverview Music Quadrangle.

Submitted by the design team of RMJM Hillier, with Diane Lewis Architect and Beckelman+Capalino of New York, and Seibert Architects of Sarasota, this plan calls for "a collaborative environment for new and existing Sarasota music activities," according to a statement by the Revive Rudolph's Riverview committee. "It would complement the Riverview High School and other Sarasota County school music programs, and it would provide studio space and performance venues for community groups and orchestras."

This and other proposals will be shown to the public on at 5 PM, Thursday (Nov 29) at the Roskamp Center on the North Trail.

More information can be found at the SAF Revive Riverview site.