The East College Street Project dirtied its hands for the first time when it delved into its “deconstruction” phase this past week. The project, which is the brainchild of Oberlin graduates Naomi Sabel, OC ’02, Josh Rosen, ’01, and Ben Ezinga, OC ’01, has been in the brainstorm and planning stages since 2001. It now tastes the early, not yet ripened fruits of its labors with deconstruction, which Rosen described as “trying to recycle the building instead of just demolishing it.”

“We’re basically just taking the building apart piece by piece,” he said, noting that the project will be evaluated by the Leed Gold Program, which ranks buildings on how green they are by their ability to reuse building materials. “We’re doing it to get green certification.”

The project will donate its spare deconstructed parts, like garage doors and windows. Only one building is currently being deconstructed; the other two will begin the process in the beginning of next year. The project aims to break ground in April or May 2006.