Ninety percent of City Hall material can be reused

A decrepit section of City Hall

Approximately 90 percent of the materials which were used to construct City Hall over 100 years ago can be reused when the landmark structure is being restored, Ed Morton, one of the consultants working on the Restoration Plan, revealed yesterday afternoon at a workshop.

The two-day workshop to develop the Comprehensive Restoration Plan and Sustainable Comprehensive Management Plan for City Hall was launched yesterday at the Roraima Duke Lodge in Kingston and featured presentations by Francis Maude, the Specialist Conservation Architect, and Morton, whose speciality is structural engineering.

During the workshop, Maude and Morton were questioned on the structural integrity of the now decrepit building, and the latter explained that it was difficult to estimate by percentage how “structurally sound” the building is currently. However, he explained that a building would need at least 10 percent structural integrity for it to be restored, and that the approximately 90 percent of the “fabric” can be reused to restore City Hall.