LIVE BUILDING
The recycling and demolition of the Wurms Building
Jason Middlebrook

Riverside Historic Downtown Main Street Mall: December 4 - December 16, 2006
Grand finale and bulldozing demolition: Saturday, December 16th, 7:30 pm
An ARTSblock Preview Event. Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Jason Middlebrook Statement:
"Over the course of a two week period I will gut the Wurms building of all it's raw and reusable materials. Each day demolition and incisions will occur and material will be removed which will than be designed and built into furniture. During the two week process the furniture and objects will be displayed on the site. My goal is to save and reuse as much of the building as possible. I will approach the building in a radical matter, cutting, exposing and dividing. The name of the project, LIVE BUILDING will be cut in gigantic letters into the parking lot side. The end objective is to reduce the amount of debris that will eventually go into a land fill. The usable parts of the building create new objects that contribute to people's lives. Each object has a sustainable foundation. I want people to see that the building and it’s history was significant to the site and to the community. It’s memory will live on in the objects it produces."

Internationally renowned artist Jason Middlebrook has conceptualized and will be overseeing the project. Middlebrook and his team will cut into and alter the building daily, transforming pieces of this historical landmark into functional furniture, which will be exhibited to the public, and sold or given away. The title of the project, "Live Building," will be cut into the side wall, which faces a parking lot, making the project and the ideas behind it visible to passers-by and the Riverside community.

LIVE BUILDING has an environmental, sustainable focus. Middlebrook's stated goal is to save and reuse as much of the building as possible, reducing the amount of material that will be treated as junk, and go to a landfill, and literally creating new life for the pieces of the building, which are created from its destruction. The usable parts of the building create new objects that contribute to people's lives, underlining the idea of architecture as a living part of a community. The Wurms Building anchored the Riverside block on Main Street for many years and was part of the landscape. Through this event, and the unique and functional pieces created from this landmark, the building lives on.

Articles:

Press Entrerprise | Recycled building
by Pat O'Brian
Press Entrerprise | Artistic Salvage
by Pat O'Brian

Los Angeles Times | Art of preservation in downtown Riverside
by Suzanne Muchnic, Times Staff Writer