Glass House faces demolition
The Glass House, George Town
(CNS): The Public Works Department is looking for a demolition firm to bring down the Glass House before the end of January next year. The former government headquarters on Elgin Avenue in George Town, which has been empty for six years, is earmarked to become a public park as part of the George Town redevelopment. The Central Tenders Committee is inviting submissions from organisations to tear down and dispose of the iconic building, which was completed in the mid 1970’s but by the new millennium had become a liability for government.
The 35,000 sq ft four-floor office building was replaced with a much larger modern building next door, which opened in 2011, but most of the government departments moved out of the Glass House as a result of the fire safety and other problems with the building as it aged long before the new Government Administration Building opened.
The tender process opened on Friday and qualified companies have until the 18 September to submit their bids. Those submitting bids will need to have experience in managing and successfully completing complex building demolition projects, the CTC documents state. The government said it expects the project to be in three phases and the company awarded the bid will do all three, starting with the demolition, followed by the debris disposal before ending with the fill and grading project.
It will be a fixed price contract and government has a targeted start date of 9 October for the 15-week job, ending on 22 January 2016.
Category: development, Local News
Laser-tag, paintball! Nuff tings we a do up inah dey.
http://www.architectural-review.com/view/view-from/view-from-george-town-cayman-islands/8679021.article
Not that long ago the Govt was celebrating a surprise visit from the architect of this failure, who coincidentally also designed the bastion of usefulness that is the Court House.
Can’t we get a few of those weed smoking, selfie taking, lazy good for nothing, expensive Prisoners off their fat backsides to knock this down and do something for their country, just for once?
How much skill does it require to wield a sledge hammer?
Southsounder-depends whose head you are aiming the sledgehammer at…Some are fat heads…others slopey…others slimey…real skill needed..
http://www.gov.ky/portal/page?_pageid=1142,2399941&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
How is a stylish building that survived Ivan a failure? It was built in Cayman in very different times (that many of us would gladly go back to). In the mid 1970s the Courthouse was seen as almost a white elephant (like the Glass House) because “there would never be enough court appearances to justify it”. At that time, the Court opened and closed within a few hours -just traffic offences and a couple of ganga smokers, well known to everyone. What a waste of money! You are out of your depth Arch E Tech.
The level of sarcasm in these comments is too damn high! Hahaha I’m in stitches.
Could this not be the site for a new Court House with better parking? The centre of George Town could then be redeveloped and brought back to life. Whatever happens, please save the big old lovely trees that Ivan almost destroyed.
It would be a great football pitch with no fill required. Over to you Bruce whilst you are still in power and before anyone else resigns from CIFA.
Let me know if you need a plumber for the water pipes. I do not sit on the Executive Committee nor do my friends or relations. Moreover I am not related to the CIFA auditor and my heart is in the right place.
Oh please. That would actually make sense.
A Court house would certainly put the site to better use for the people of West Bay and East End.
Nice spot for a turtle shaped Ice Rink.
Turtle Dome has a nice ring to it.
Which end would the bathrooms be located? The turtle’s head?
Will the park reflect Cayman’s Christian heritage?
And named The Garden Of Anthony Eden?
Hahahaha!
That garden would have a strict “Heterosexuals Only” sign with a warning “Anyone with the gayness better not come near my garden”.
It would need to have a whiff of lavender to be authentic.
Build something there that would help revive the capital’s social/leisure appeal.
Wait a minute… The last time we had a teeny ‘park’ with trees and benches in town, they took it down because the ‘local flovour’ was loitering and peeing in the bushes.
Perhaps that was the social/leisure appeal Dr Sweetbottom was talking about.
Where is the common sense in CIG?? If it has to be demolished it should become a car park!!
If the building is made of steel couldn’t the glass just be removed and it turned into a multi level parking lot..
Public park equals nicely landscaped outdoor drug market by day and crime scene by night.
I don’t know why but I love that building. It is a shame that upkeep wasn’t kept up as things starting falling down. But that’s CIG, eh.
Going to take a few photos before it’s gone. Bye bye Glass House.
How much they want for the asbestos?
You beat me to that. Seriously, I hope they’ve done a hazardous waste assessment because that structure is a mess.
They’re going to put it in the dump so we can have ONE thing in there that won’t burn.
Keep the Dump growing.
Bidders are crossing fingers the job will happen soon and that they won’t have to truck the debris to Boddentown.
Lots of people on here love throwing stones, a match made in heaven methinks.
To be completed by 2057.
Turn it into a mental health clinic
And send all of the pro-cruise port advocates to get their heads checked.
No need to turn it into that, it was its previous usage.
We have one of those, it’s called ” the Legislative Assembly”
How about a car park? That is what is really needed.
3:48 am
EXACTLY!
No we need green space in town. While parking is a real issue it would also be nice to have some trees, benches to sit on and open space for children and all to play and enjoy. GT is concrete jungle as it is.
Or maybe build a car park here(or parking deck?) and turn all those shoreline car parks into real parks. Seriously, who puts parking lots on prime shoreline?!!
cig incompetence at its finest……
sell it!!!!…public park??????
welcome to wonderland
Surely a Christian Heritage Park with strict “No gayness” rules.
Sell it to DART so we can have something else to complain about!!!
09.33 we can only complain if its a deal done behind closed doors. If its in the open, unless we give it to him nothing to complain about. How about that as a site for the new dump?
More like something else actually completed..
If the building has such underlying safety issues that it has to be demolished, you have to ask if these relate to the incompetence of the architects who were involved in the original design and specifications. Who were the architects ?
Demolition should have happened years ago…. before they all escaped.
There has to be away to remediate this building. God knows the government wastes enough money on utter stupidity. Why not use some of it to preserve a historical and iconic building that could be used in a positive way. But no, we’ll just spend some more money on consultant reports…..
That’s a lot of glass to haul up to the bins at Camana Bay……..
This is an ideal time for the executive committee of CIFA to tender their bid.
Surely not to house CIFA – after all, people in Glass Houses and all that…