Oct 19 2007

Demolishing the Oregon State Hospital Was Considered Once Before

Published by Rob at 11:03 pm under The Past

Twenty three years ago the Capitol Planning Commission created the J-Building Sub –Committee to review the issues surrounding the Mental Health Division’s proposal to demolish buildings 42, 43, 44, 45 and 46 of the Oregon State Hosptal J-Building complex. The Sub-Committee requested the Department of General Services and Human Resources to study “whether or not renovation was economically feasible, and to look at viable alternative uses for the building, given its potential historic significance.”The request for demolition was withdrawn pending results of the study.

The firm of Samuels and Clay, Architects from Coos Bay completed the study with the following recommendations:

The Reuse Feasibility Study of the J-Building at the Oregon State Hospital Campus indicates that the costs of conversion to other uses appears to be reasonable.It is appropriate to study further the conversion of this building to other uses.

Potential uses and funding sources should be examined.

Later that year, Steve Clay of the above architect firm wrote: “I have been contacted several times by a client who has business associates very interested in the “J-Building project. I sincerely believe that there is at least one developer available who clearly has the resources to accomplish the entire scope of this project and who may also be willing to work on the project in the phased approach ….”This all happened 23 years ago. In the life of a 124 year old building, that is fairly recent. . .

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