After more than 20 years of good times and bad, the downtown Pavilion appears to be destined for destruction. A recent engineer's report determined the building was on the verge of collapse. "It is going to implode," said operations manager Gord Prescott at a District of Squamish strategy session Tuesday (April 8).The report describes seven major areas of concern including 21 rotting support posts, exposed electrical service, a dangerous wheelchair ramp, missing guardrails and missing roof shingles. The Pavilion is also deemed a fire hazard due to untreated wood, making it especially susceptible to vandalism."The structure should be removed to avoid increased risk and liability," states the report, "especially during increased exposure to foreign tourists with the potential for increased vandalism during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games."But it's not the first time the issue of a rotting foundation and dangerous structural problems has come before council. Ever since the project first began in the fall of 1985, conflict and controversy plagued the Pavilion.Most recently, the use of its roof as a shelter for homeless people has drawn further attention to its hazards, as well as the misuse of the public structure. Many longtime residents also remember the drama surrounding its very completion 22 years ago - perhaps none more so than the Pavilion's designer and partial builder Peter Legere. "It's too bad that it's come to this," said Legere. "I told them when they covered up the drainage that it was going to rot away on them." Legere was hired in 1985 to head the project, but soon clashed with council members sitting on the project's committee. "Norm Verner and Corinne Lonsdale were on the committee and they decided that they didn't need me on the project," he said. "I'd spent a good percentage of a very small budget on a proper drainage system around the eaves, the drip line. They took all that dirt and pushed it up against the building and covered up the drainage system and manmade it so that all the water that fell around the site would drain in underneath the building and thereby rot away the foundation poles, which is exactly what happened." The drama surrounding Legere's removal from the project, then his re-hiring following community protest is archived in the Squamish Times. Legere said he was never allowed to fix the drainage, however.Since then, the structure has been closed, repaired and re-opened numerous times.Over the past 10 years, the Pavilion has been kept alive through ongoing patch ups, which are no longer an option, according to a staff.During the most recent meeting on the matter, council members agreed to immediately fence off the structure to prevent public access, but they debated whether or not to move toward reconstruction.Lonsdale suggested the district provide local architects with the opportunity to rebuild the structure in a new form using healthy wood portions of the Pavilion."I believe some of the materials in that building could be used to do that," she said. Though Coun. Raj Kahlon said he would support handing over the materials as compensation for tearing the structure down, he urged staff to act immediately."Start tearing it down. It's a liability. It's huge," he said.Prescott said he would look into reconstruction options.While the Pavilion regularly acts as a band stage during community celebrations, Lonsdale said it has never lived up to its original potential, adding that fires have sometimes been lit within it."It's not always been good stuff that's been in there," she said.Case in point is its recently controversial function as an unofficial refuge for homeless people.Dismantling the structure would cost the district an estimated $5,500 -a price deemed feasible in the staff report.According to RKTG, installing a proper foundation would exceed $600,000. This figure does not address the other issues plaguing the Pavilion such as the need for re-roofing. Council will decide on the fate of the Pavilion during an upcoming council meeting.
