NIU to demolish entire lecture hall building...

[Manedwolf]

You know, if this happens every time something bad happens, we're going to be living in necropolises of memorials.

This is one thing a lot of Europeans I've talked to think Americans are nuts about. If something blew up there or whatever, they just rebuilt it.

(Note, they're going to use $40 million in state money to do this, despite IL being nearly broke. S'okay, they'll just raise taxes!)

Site of fatal NIU shootings to be demolished

(CNN) -- The building where a gunman killed five people at Northern Illinois University two weeks ago will be demolished, state officials said Wednesday.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office confirmed that the state will provide the funding for the university to demolish Cole Hall, the site of Steven Kazmierczak's February 14 rampage.

Cole Hall will be replaced by a high-tech classroom building to be named Memorial Hall, the office said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/27/niu.building/index.html

[Standing Wolf]

Kazmierczak's girlfriend told CNN that the 27-year-old had stopped taking an antidepressant three weeks before the shooting.
Jessica Baty said Kazmierczak had been taking Xanax, used to treat anxiety, and Ambien, a sleep agent, as well as the antidepressant Prozac.
Baty did not say whether Kazmierczak stopped taking Prozac abruptly or whether he consulted with his psychiatrist before doing so.
She said Kazmierczak had been taking the antidepressant for obsessive-compulsive tendencies and anxiety caused by school.
Baty told CNN that, during their two-year courtship, she had never seen him display violent tendencies, and she expressed bewilderment over the cause of the rampage. "He was anything but a monster," Baty said. "He was probably the nicest, most caring person ever."

Bad building! Bad, bad building!

[ilbob]

how is it that blago can come up with $40 million without it being approved by the legislature?

[El Tejon]

Because Blago is "Public Official A" in the U.S. Attorney's paperwork.

[Ex-MA Hole]

Who'd fight him on it?

If you did, you'd be considered inconsiderate to the students' pain....

[Manedwolf]

Actually, I'm finding a lot of opposition on a search of other newspapers and such there. People are calling it idiotic, when other schools are crumbling, to destroy a perfectly functional 500-seat building built in 1968.

And someone even said "If we tear down the building and build a new one, isn't the new one a testament and honor to the killer, since it's being built because of them"?

It's true...

And:

Chicago Tribune poll

Do you think Cole Hall should be torn down?

Yes (602 responses) 17.2%

No (2894 responses) 82.8%

Also http://www.galesburg.com/homepage/x2052202357


Not that that will stop them, but people are annoyed.

[HankB]

Follow the money.

If you had the ability to trace down who's signing the approvals for demolition, waste removal, environmental engineering, landscaping, plumbing, electrical, etc. etc., I'm quite sure you'll find that person's extended family reaping the benefits.

Before the blood dried, someone was rubbing their hands together as they stared at the TV coverage chanting "New Building! Payday! New Building! Payday!" <barf icon>

[The Viking]

Not that that will stop them, but people are annoyed.

Which is a good thing. Even the most indoctrinated has to wake up sometime...

[geronimotwo]

i think this is a total waste, unless the building had other problems before the shooting (structural, etc).

[lupinus]

My friend and I had an interesting discussion reguarding battlefields just the other day which kind of mirrors this.

He's a WW2 reenactor and has done a few recreation armored tours in Europe and we were discussing civil war battlefields and the different attitudes to European battlefields.  Little memorial sure but they don't necessarily try and preserve the whole damn thing.

Sure, stick up a little memorial maybe, but tear down the building?  Bad *expletive deleted*it happens, sometimes people go nutso and shoot innocent people.  *expletive deleted*it happens.  Mop it up, console the living, but move the hell on.  Tearing down a perfectly good building to try and erase memories is stupidity at its finest.

[Devonai]

If the students can't deal with it, well, they'll be gone in four years.  If the faculty can't deal with it, replace them and save millions.

[Perd Hapley]

I'm happy to report that the site of the Kirkwood City Hall shooting a couple of weeks ago, just re-opened, with a new paint job and some re-decorating.