More than 1,000 colourful and historic tiles on the outside of the old Oak Bay High School are being saved and mounted on a two-storey interior wall of the replacement school, now under construction.
But a local heritage advocate says the tiles, made in Malibu, California, should have been incorporated on the exterior of the new school, not put inside where the public can’t see them.
He said there will be enough left over from the indoor installations to mount on the outside of the new building.
Walk up to the 1929 California-Spanish style school and you’ll see a large variety of tiles. Some are patterned, some solid glossy colours.
Some panels feature creams, browns and black. Others include bright blues, terra cotta colours and whites. Individually mounted tiles, in many different patterns and bright colours, evoke a spirit of hot, sunny climes.
Plans call for tiles to be salvaged and mounted in two sections of a 2.5-metre-wide, brightly lit inside wall, said Jim Soles, School District 61 superintendent of building projects.
One grouping would use 964 tiles installed in a narrow arch pattern, reflecting part of the original design. A second group of 90 tiles would be mounted below.
Soles does not know the total number of tiles on the school.
Some might break when taken out, he said. They are embedded in two-centimetre-thick concrete stucco and are expected to be difficult to remove.
He’s hoping tiles can be removed in sections a few feet long.
A decision has not been made on what to do with any remaining tiles, he said. Creating another indoor tile display has not been ruled out.
Heritage consultant Stuart Stark is “extremely disappointed” that the tiles are not going up on the outside walls of the new $52.5-million school, adjacent to the existing school.
“Because it was an exterior art installation, it would be better to do it outside where the community could still enjoy them,” Stark said. “They have had enough time to design a suitable location for them outside.”
There are still many more tiles on the school than those planned for the interior projects, he said.
He is opposed to selling extra tiles.
“Selling them is selling your heritage and that is not an appropriate thing to do.”
The importance of art and heritage is not always recognized, said Stark, who counts the school as part of his personal history. Stark’s mother went to the school in its early days. He and his brothers were Oak Bay students as well, and so were his children.
Stark said that he donated services to produce the historic colour scheme when the two main buildings were most recently repainted in 2006.
Malibu tiles are desired by collectors. They were made in California in the late 1920s and early 1930s at Malibu Potteries in California.
“The history of the Malibu Potteries was short — a scant six years — but the influence of this factory was felt up and down the west coast of North America from the late 1920s through the early years of the Great Depression,” Stark said in an article about the tiles.
“The tiles that they produced, in bright colours and Saracen designs, were used in homes, for fountains, in automobile showrooms, on the fronts of commercial buildings and even on schools and inside city halls.”
Oak Bay High School has one of the largest installations of Malibu tiles in Canada, Stark said.
These tiles are “bright reminders of a part of California history,” he said.
Malibu tiles were used in fountains, including one in the conservatory of the Empress Hotel that was removed during a past remodelling project.
Another example of Malibu tiles remains on the wall of a parking lot in the 700-block of Broughton Street. These colourful tiles, patterned with birds and flowers, were once part of a fountain in an automobile showroom.
Farmer Construction is building the school, slated to open in September. The contemporary structure will replace the 1929 school building, a 1950s building to the west, and two wings built in the 1960s.
It is being built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. Reusing and recycling the existing buildings helps reach LEED certification, Soles said.
Other interior tiles are also being salvaged, he said. An existing sign on the west building will be put on the new school.
Old-growth fir in the east building is being salvaged by the demolition contractor, Sole said. Concrete will be crushed and reused as fill.
To read Stuart Stark’s article on Malibu tiles: oldhouseliving.com/ 2012/01/29/malibu-tiles-architectural-decoration-from-california/
