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UD will start gutting Building 26
Architectural elements with historical value to be salvaged for future interactive exhibit.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
DAYTON — The University of Dayton will start selective demolition of former NCR Building 26 this week, university officials confirmed Wednesday.
Architectural elements with historical value will be salvaged for a future interactive exhibit commemorating the building's World War II codebreaking project to be located at nearby Carillon Historical Park, said UD spokeswoman Teri Rizvi.
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The site housed a top-secret project headed by the late Joseph Desch, a UD graduate, to develop code-breaking machines capable of deciphering coded German messages. Desch's work for NCR is credited with hastening the end of the war.
In the next three weeks, a contractor will remove the building's crown molding, limestone window sills and art deco elements, along with pallets of stone lintels and bricks, for recreating the building's feel, UD said.
Dayton History is spearheading the commemorative exhibit and will raise funds for its construction. The group is currently working on a master plan for interactive displays at the 65-acre Carillon park.
In June, UD announced its final decision to tear down the building after Ohio's preservation office said the building didn't appear to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
UD said it will not demolish the building's shell until early 2008. It must remove asbestos and complete a lengthy application process before it can get a demolition permit, said Dayton building inspections supervisor Jim Montgomery.
But UD can conduct selective demolition in the meantime without a permit, Montgomery said.
A $2.5 million Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant is funding the work.
The site will be ready for development by fall 2008, UD said.
Comments
By Aaron Wunsch
September 9, 2007 5:35 PM | Link to this
“Painfultruth” & fellow anonymous opponents of preserving Bldg. 26: I’ve begun to wonder: DU you work for the UD PR Office? Forgive me for asking this question and for posing another: are any of you architects? A thorough, indepent architectural survey of the building would show that, behind the layers of additions, the original building survives. Sadly, the public will apparently be deprived of the opportunity to see it.
By Jefferey
September 6, 2007 6:28 PM | Link to this
Now that Building 26 is coming down, the preservation priority should be the Arcade.
Is this community up to that challenge, or will be see similar sentiments to that around Building 26?
By Dawn
September 6, 2007 6:17 PM | Link to this
I love learning about the history in our town. I also think that our town has alot of buildings that need cleaned up and empty buildings that need torn down. Everyone wants to live in a beautiful city but wants to complain about clean up. It’s great to know that building 26 achieved great history, we can all remember this and move on. UD had done alot of things to clean up the area and this one will be another. Remember the past but live in the present.
By "J"
September 6, 2007 5:51 PM | Link to this
William Kennedy needs to explore the interior of Building 26. It is a decaying hulk. NCR gutted and remodelled it, then abandoned it. Why does he think UD is spitting in anyone’s face? I’ve been in the building many times, top to bottom, and it could not be “repurposed” in any sort of cost effective manner. Even if it could, how much money has Kennedy, and his fellow zealots, raised to do so? Put your money where your mouth is!
By Dave
September 6, 2007 5:46 PM | Link to this
Gee, why weren’t there front page headlines like this, multiple times, before the DDN tore down the historic building on their new site? Is historic preservation only important when someone ELSE gets put on the spot?
By "J"
September 6, 2007 5:45 PM | Link to this
From the comments posted so far, it looks like people are finally starting to get it! No one at UD is minimizing what Joe Desch and the codebreakers did, and no one is trying to demolish or destroy history. But “Building 26,” as Desch knew it, is long gone, gutted and remodelled. There might be a few features that can be salvaged, but the building itself hasn;t existed for decades. Mark apparently hasn’t looked at the current Building 26- it is far from “beautiful.”
By Retired NCR executive
September 6, 2007 4:43 PM | Link to this
I worked in Building 26 for years. The building was revamped, redecorated, realigned numerous times while I was there. There was NO concern about its history or about who had worked there in the past or what their mission was. It was renovated to accommodate the moment. I appreciate what Joe Desch accomplished….and he should be remembered for having done a great work….but the building is an eyesore and should go.
By UD Grad
September 6, 2007 2:29 PM | Link to this
UD has put ALOT of money into the city beatification project, along with Miami Valley Hospital. As a UD graduate, I can say that the University has gone to great lengths to preserve the history of its campus despite newer buildings and the renovation of older ones. I doubt this situation will differ. If you are such an advocate for preservation why are you waiting till now to do something? Your energy would be better spent suggesting ways to exhibit the history, I am sure UD would listen.
By Bob
September 6, 2007 12:43 PM | Link to this
I know people that worked in the building after it was modified. They can tell how little of that “small core” is left, and how little it resembles anything worth saving. The cost to do anything worthwhile with it far outweighs the benefit. It would be cheaper to rebuild it from scratch with the original plans. With what UD is doing, the story of what happened will be told. If the money was spent saving the building, there would be nothing left to tell the story.
By William Kennedy
September 6, 2007 12:05 PM | Link to this
By Bob
September 6, 2007 10:11 AM | Link to this
If UD didn’t knock the building down, it would be the same eyesore in twenty-years that it is today. With UD taking care of the problem, there will actually be a meaningful exhibit about the work done in that building, as opposed to an empty rotting shell of a building surrounded by barbed-wire.
By Diane
September 6, 2007 9:53 AM | Link to this
Mark, You have GOT to be kidding! Nice cities like “Toledo”? I moved from Dayton to Toledo a year ago. I can tell you I never appreciated what Dayton has going for it until I moved to the armpit of the world. The politics of city counsil, our Mayor Finkbeiner (yes his real name) and the shear stupidity of how Toledo is run makes me appreciate the great job Mike Turner did. Sure the Toledo Zoo is good and so is the art museum - that’s all there is here. Appreciate what you have.
By Publicus
September 6, 2007 9:44 AM | Link to this
“Nice cities like Toledo”?
By Dan Kennedy
September 6, 2007 9:43 AM | Link to this
Re: post by ‘matt-0’. Good point about the Arcade. I think the city commissioners have written it off. Get a good look and some pictures at Urban Nights. Once local control of that building is lost, all the caretaking by Danis will be for naught. I think it likely that it will be the site of a parking garage in the near future.
By matt-0
September 6, 2007 9:08 AM | Link to this
I live in Southpark. UD is a great neighbor and one of the few positives the city has going for it. Building 26 is an architectural eyesore and its historical significance is over-played. Dayton’s historical community needs to exercise some discretion and pick its battles more wisely. If not, they they will just be viewed as bunch of historical crybabies. Focus on the Arcade!
By Dan Kennedy
September 6, 2007 9:05 AM | Link to this
The next historic building to fall will be the old Odd Fellows hall on La Belle in St. Ann Hill neighborhood. If only some one needed a small community theater/playhouse.
Where have the City of Dayton commissioners been on the issue of preserving historic architecture? I can’t recall hearing anything from them about Building 26.
By painfultruth
September 6, 2007 8:34 AM | Link to this
To all the “save the building” crybabies, the historical value was decimated by years of renovation. This isn’t the Empire State Building, but an old NCR building. Dayton worries too much about obscure historical facts. Live in the world of today. If this was a historically significant building in original form, it would have been saved. It’s a built-over mess worthy of a wrecking ball.
By Frustrated
September 6, 2007 8:24 AM | Link to this
UD has done more to improve this city than any other organization in Dayton. I think it’s great what they’re doing…keep it up!!!
By Get Real
September 6, 2007 8:22 AM | Link to this
The university has acted in a responsible and measured way. They commissioned studies, sought input from preservation and historical organizations, and held public meetings for feedback.
There simply isn’t enough of the original building left. It is an eyesore and has been for decades. It is not what UD wants people see when they cross the Stewart Street bridge into the expanded campus. The planned exhibit should do justice to the terrific work of Joseph Desch, a UD grad.
By Matt
September 6, 2007 6:50 AM | Link to this
People say things like “shame on them” while you have other fantastic pieces of architecture sitting around abandoned and waiting for the same fate. Face it folks Dayton is one of those towns where all anyone does when it comes to preservation is lament demolition after it’s already too late. Why don’t you people start taking part in these processes before it ever gets to this point? This building has been neglected for YEARS! Why weren’t you fussing about that ten years ago?! Too late now!
By Mark
September 6, 2007 6:49 AM | Link to this
This is why Dayton is such a pit. Nice cities like Cincinnati, Toledo (Toledo Zoo for example), and Nashville preserve their historical buildings and eventually attract visitors for aesthetic reasons. Dayton is ugly and UD, of all places, is now adding yet another ugly building that won’t last near as long as #26 and will never be as beautiful. Why would an institution so steeped in local history and historical buildings tear down a historical marker? They could and use it, just the same to further their heritage? Money? Let’s hope for a better result for the Arcade.
By Abraham Lincoln
September 6, 2007 5:40 AM | Link to this
I used to work across the alley or street in Building #29. At that time this building was training sales people and the north side was the advertising department whose head I used to visit from time to time. Joseph Desch didn’t work in building #26 at that time but had an office on the west side of the building I worked in, Building #29. That building is already gone and forgotten.
By Rudy Flyer
September 6, 2007 4:26 AM | Link to this
I guess the old saying is true…VD is bad but UD is worse!
By William Kennedy
September 6, 2007 3:21 AM | Link to this
Shame on the University of Dayton for stubbonly persisting with this. This building had international significance and now it will be lost like so many of our historic treasures. This building had a small footprint and could have be repurposed in a cost-effective manner. For no logical reason, the University insists on spitting in the face of our city, our veterans, and its own alumnus who headed the code breaking project. Shame and disgrace.
By jimmie
September 6, 2007 12:58 AM | Link to this
Finally - some progress.