The Stanard School was an old brick and sandstone building that was deconstructed in 2008. The one acre site on which the school sat is being converted into an urban farm operated by the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities. An old school administration building on the site is being preserved and utilized for administrative office for cooperative extension and food storage for the farm. The components of the school, including old growth wood floorboards, chalkboards, brick, and stone were provided to local urban gardens free of charge (to build walkways or raised beds). Other materials were utilized by A Piece of Cleveland (APOC), a small company that manufactures high-end furniture from old buildings and materials that contain the history of Cleveland.
Videos tagged as 'deconstruction'
This video features the construction of the first pilot strawbale greenhouse at Vel's Purple Oasis on the east-side of Cleveland. The greenhouse is a part of StrawVille, an initiative of the New Agrarian Center to utilize strawbale construction techniques to enhance urban agriculture in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Strawbale construction involves the use of strawbales (an abundant waste product of local agriculture) to create highly insulated buildings that retain heat and improve energy efficiency. Applying techniques for the construction of its office in Oberlin, the NAC partnered with Fox Natural Construction and the Urban Lumberjacks of Cleveland to construct this pilot project. In addition to improved efficiency, the benefits of strawbale construction are numerous: use of non-toxic and biodegradable materials, incorporation of art and sculpture, and building community through a construction process that mimics an Amish barn-raising. Other examples of strawbale construction in the region include: the Kious residence in Cleveland Heights, the beer garden at the Great Lakes Brewing Company restaurant, the strawbale toolshed at the Cleveland Eco-Village garden, and a variety of building applications at the George Jones Farm in Oberlin.
This video features the work of the Urban Lumberjacks of Cleveland (ULOC). Adam Smith, one of the original co-founders of ULOC, describes the deconstruction process. An alternative to demolition, deconstruction involves the dis-assembly of foreclosed or abandoned buildings and the re-purposing of materials for re-use in future building projects. This video eludes to the potential re-use of building materials for urban agriculture applications. In this case, building materials from one of the first house deconstructions by ULOC in 2009 were re-purposed for the construction of a strawbale greenhouse at Vel's Purple Oasis urban farm, located just a few blocks from a deconstruction site. In addition to re-purposing materials, deconstruction creates new job opportunities in deconstruction and construction of new structures. How can we begin to see the abandoned buildings in cities like Cleveland as a reservoir of materials that can be used for a variety of urban agriculture applications: greenhouses, raised beds, cooler facilities, market stands, shade pavilions, or homes for urban farmsteads?