Second Chance saddles up to save historic building 03/09/2007
The old Woodland Park Saddle Club building has to be removed before developers can begin construction of Woodland Station. Just a few years ago that would mean demolishing the building and sending its pieces to the landfill.
Not anymore. Instead of being demolished, the old building is being deconstructed. After competitive bidding, the city hired Second Chance Renovations & Deconstruction to give the building a new lease on life as a machine shop, new floors, youth camp building projects, driveways and even firewood. The club's old gas range was bought by a restaurant owner who has one like it.
"This is a great community project," said K.C. Kuykendall, the company president. "Rather than smash and trash the building; we've resold it, saving about 90 percent of the natural resources that would have gone to the landfill. That diversion is a big win."
Kuykendall said the process of saving pieces of the building began long before his company was hired.
"Folks came in and removed some of the old barn wood, the bar, even the florescent lights will be reused," he said. "The wood in the grandstand was given to a local family who will use it as firewood."
Second Chances recognizes the historical significance of the Saddle Club building, Kuykendall said, adding, "We're engaged with the community so they can have a little piece of that history."
This is the first deconstruction project of its kind in Teller County, but Kuykendall hopes it will mark a trend in Woodland Park and the county.
"Woodland Park has such a wealth of natural resources and it has managed to keep them without becoming reclusive," he said. "We're just trying to do our part in keeping those resources in the community."
Second Chance, which is based in Colorado Springs, uses local subcontractors and rental businesses and donates a percentage of the contract amount to local charities, such as Community Cupboard.
Once hazardous materials such as ACM, or asbestos containing materials, were removed, the building is being taken down in the exact opposite order of the way it was built. The interior is removed first - about half of the 6,000 square feet of oak floors have already found new homes - the outside walls and the roof will go down next followed by the metal frame work. Everything is put on pallets and labeled for reconstruction.
"It's a painstaking process," Kuykendall said. "It takes a little more time and costs more to do than the typical smash-and-trash project because it's more labor intensive, but we will offset that with the sale of the building and the savings in landfill fees."
The foundation and sidewalks will be turned into driveway material. Large planks were given to the Lion's Club for projects at its youth camp.
"These rough-sawn boards are so much better than anything you can buy today," Kuykendall said. "Anything that comes from a natural state has embodied energy. When we can reuse it we harvest that embodied energy and it becomes as multi-layered energy savings."
Second Chance was one of several demolition companies approached by Woodland Park public works director David Buttery.
"We reviewed all the bids and determined the city would get the best value with his [Kuykendall's] program," he said. "The cost to the city is reduced because he was able to find another buyer for the building and we like his business philosophy of sustainability by not consuming new resources ... I would recommend this process to anyone who needs to take a building down."
For more information about Second Chances, visit www.secondchance-inc.com.
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