RM 12-04-81 - Laserfiche WebLink

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South Bend Commission Regular Mee �edevelopment ing December 4, 1981 5. COMMUNI ATIONS (continued) first -class dump. I talked to them for years about re- modelin , and they said there wasn't much they could do with thE building, it's built on 9 -foot centers, 9 feet wide, a d...tried to get around your desk, 30 feet long, you could have an office 30 x 30, but there wasn't any - thing else you could do with it. The heating system was terrible even after they converted from City heat to private heat- never turned the register on on the second floor facing the JMS Building, you couldn't open the windows because of the noise ... echoed off the JMS Build- ing. T ere was so much heat escaping through the walls and pips that I turned the air - conditioner on all winter long, all winter, believe me, even when it was below zero, it was the most uncomfortable 20 years I ever spent in my life. One thing that I could say for the building, the price was right for what you got. I think it's an eyesore to the City, it has no history whatsoever. I'm a member of this community... It has no historic value and I t ink we would be better off with it going down. Thank y u. Mr. Nimtz: Thank you, Mr. Ettl. Mr. Bra emas: Mr. President, I must respond. The centers are 15-loot on centers, not 9 -foot on centers. I have the engineering drawings to show that and, again, I think this is clas is and I am glad that Mr. Ettl has spoken out. With all due respect, he is obviously a honored citizen here in the community, but he is an attorney and I would suggest that I don't know very much about law, although my legal counsel tells me that I have got to stop trying to practice law, and I'm trying to do that. It is clear, Mr. Ettl, with all due respect, that you don't know any- thing a out architecture and you don't know anything abour reconstruction, and this is my field and I can tell you I dc know what I am talking about and that building is full3 feasible of being rehabilitated and it would be an entire new air - conditioning and heating system through- out the building. The building would be refurbished complet ly from top to bottom, two new high -speed elevators would b put in. You would not recognize the interior of the bui ding from what is there now. If you had come and looked it the Ice House Restaurant before we went in, a dirt floor, pigeons and bats flying all around, the walls were sc ling all off and so forth. Today it has character, it is s ccessful, and I would question that anyone in this room co Id come over there and say that this is kind of a 21