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Sudbury’s new Fairbank Community Center has, in many ways, defied all the odds. It took roughly a decade of task forces and working groups to get to a proposal that voters supported. Then Covid hit.
But a global pandemic wasn’t all that the project had to overcome. Ensuing supply chain disruptions wreaked havoc on construction projects across the country, and the cost of materials went through the roof. Along the way there were surprises lurking underground on the site, in addition to the usual construction surprises.
With all of that in the rearview mirror, on Tuesday the Permanent Building Committee was provided perhaps the most shocking report since the beginning of this project: there were no big surprises during demolition of the old building. In fact, it was smoother than expected, as there was some concern that they might have unexpected remediation work to do once they open up the walls. But after all the curveballs and seemingly insurmountable obstacles along the way, the old community center went quietly into that good night.
There were no major unforeseen issues that came up during demolition. Demolition was described by the Owner’s Project Manager as very successful:
“The building came down very quickly, very smoothly. And one of the things that I can report is that it came down very economically from a risk standpoint.”
Owner’s Project Manager, Chris Eberly
Here are the demolition pictures that were shared during the meeting:




