COUNCIL is damaging the Fremantle Arts Centre with its present works program.
The beautiful copper guttering was stolen and instead of replacing it using the insurance money, council installed plastic pipes.
Now, the building is being re-roofed in totally inappropriate tin sheeting.
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READ NOWFremantle council should stop work and do the right thing.
The roof being replaced was put there by Rob Campbell when he did the restoration of the arts centre in 1972.
He spent a year engineering a copy of the original shingles, genuine shingles then being too expensive.
Now genuine shingles are easier to get, but if they are too expensive, then facsimiles should be used, not glaring large sheets of tin, which is the cheap and lazy way out.
Many people regard the Fremantle Arts Centre (former lunatic asylum) as their favourite building in Fremantle.
It has soul, tranquillity, and a brooding atmosphere, despite its grim early history.
JOHN DOWSON, president,
The Fremantle Society.