Aged wood-framed bungalows that were among the oldest buildings at Los Angeles Valley College were demolished Thursday, more than half a century after they were brought to the campus.
The first to go were classrooms 50, 51 and 52, the sites of countless tests and at some point a home of an administrative office, falling under the giant claw of a demolition vehicle.
It’s the end of an era for these 1950s era bungalows at LA Valley College, among the original classroom and office buildings for the campus. This one is among the first of dozens that were set to be demolished today, and next March. pic.twitter.com/QYeYdBcLTo
— Elizabeth Chou (@reporterliz) December 21, 2018
Those classrooms and one other building were being demolished Thursday to make way for a thermo-energy storage facility that will hold chilled water for the campus’s air-conditioning system. More than 30 others bungalow buildings nearby are also slated to come down in March, with the clearing opened up left for groundwater-capturing purposes.
Originally transported to the campus in the late 1950s from their original home at Van Nuys High School, the cluster of bungalow buildings at the south side of the campus, along Burbank Boulevard, once made up the hub of campus activity, when the college’s population was only in the several hundreds.
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Los Angeles Valley College President Erika Endrijonas gets being the controls of a bulldozer to begin the tear-down of the bungalows at the Los Angeles Valley College. The bungalows were used as class rooms since the late 1950’s. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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The tear-down of the bungalows at the Los Angeles Valley College began on Thursday. The bungalows were used as class rooms since the late 1950’s. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Los Angeles Valley College President Erika Endrijonas gets behind the controls of a bulldozer to begin the tear-down of the bungalows at the Los Angeles Valley College. The bungalows were used as class rooms since the late 1950’s. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Visitors get a last photo of the bungalows at Los Angeles Valley College as the tear-down of the old classrooms began at the Los Angeles Valley College. The bungalows were used as class rooms since the late 1950’s. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Los Angeles Valley College President Erika Endrijonas, right, gets a high-five from Bruce Johnson, the project manager working on taking down the old bungalows, in background, at the college. The bungalows were used as class rooms since the late 1950’s. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
The bungalows have since retreated into the shadows of the more modern buildings erected on campus over the years, asbestos-tinged and growing ever more dilapidated.
At one point, the undersides of the bungalows became favorite nesting spots for a feral cat population that had taken hold on campus, according to the college’s outgoing president Erika Endrijonas.
Students taking classes in the bungalows during the summer months would often report the smell of cat urine, she said.
Endrijonas said that in recent years, college officials have been able to get a handle on the cat community, and have reduced their numbers to about 40 feral felines known to be living at the college.
The bungalows, having fulfilled their usefulness, had sat vacant over the last two years, with many eagerly awaiting the eventual demolition of an area of the campus they consider an “eyesore.”
But for all of their blemishes, the bungalows held nostalgic value for Alicen Vera, a coordinator for the CalWORKS program who worked in them for about 20 years before.
“It was a little heart wrenching” to watch the building come down, Vera said.
The buildings were known as “the village,” and the limited space had created a sense of community, before they moved out of the bungalows two years ago, she said.
“We felt more like a family there because we were all scrunched in there,” Vera said.
And with the end of an era, what’s to become of the feral cats that had roamed the bungalows?
“They found other homes,” said Bruce Johnson, the project manager.
Specialists trained to deal with the animals shooed away three cats that were still hanging around, he said.
Source: “Los Angeles” – Google News