Ameritrust Tower - Protest of Waste

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
East 9th betwixt Euclid and Prospect
(That is right smack in front of the Ameritrust Tower)

Here is the release:

TAXPAYERS PROTEST COUNTY COMMISSIONERS’
SPENDING $32 MILLION TO CREATE EMPTY LOT

A coalition of good government and fiscal responsibility advocates,
environmentalists and historic preservationists will assemble at 5:00 pm
on Thursday, May 3, 2007 outside the Ameritrust Tower, located at East
9th Street between Euclid and Prospect Avenues, to protest the Cuyahoga
County Commissioners' plan to raze the building.

Last year the Commissioners purchased the 29-story tower designed by
world- renowned architect Marcel Breuer for $21 million. Demolition,
including asbestos abatement, is estimated to cost $11 million. On the
surface this appears to be a $32,000,000 expenditure to create an empty
lot. Upon closer examination the costs associated with the commissioners
plan exceed this.

The coalition is picketing in order to call attention to the fact that
Commissioners Tim Hagan and Jimmy Dimora ignored input from their fellow
Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones and architectural experts who objected
to the proposed project from the standpoint of its cost and the loss to
Cleveland's skyline of one of its historically significant buildings.
The coalition is opposed to the demolition of the tower, whether the
site is used to create a new county administration center or not.

Total cost for building the new county administration complex has been
estimated at $164 million with contracts of $10 million and $13.5
million already awarded to R.P. Carbone Construction and Robert P.
Madison International, Architects. It is likely that the estimated cost
is too low and will increase during construction.

Dimora and Hagan have said they want the new administration building to
be “green” or “sustainable”. Destruction of the Ameritrust Tower, and
the resultant waste of its “embodied energy” effectively cancels-out any
legitimate claim the project may make to environmental responsibility.

The “embodied” energy contained in the structure can be estimated at 15
gallons of gasoline per square foot; equal to approximately $11,000,000.
Discounting the other environmental costs associated with the demolition
of the tower, this figure brings the total amount of wasted public funds
to well over $44,000,000.

Now, the event is a "black and white" affair, wear monochromatic clothing, office attire, etc. Show a little white collar support. While I think that a lot of the people going would be in the architecture profession and therefore only be wearing black (its SLIMMING!) - and I don't have any black and/or white only clothes (since I am only an INTERN) the turnout will hopefully raise some eyebrows.

I originally vamped on an idea with some chaps about dressing up like buildings (envision painted refrigerator boxes) and then having someone with a philly cheese-steak hanging out of their mouth bash on the dressed up fellahs with a foam baseball bat.

Many were not amused with that idea, they said it was too literal. Perhaps we can save it for a later date.