FOCUS: An in-depth look at issues affecting the University community:

BRICK BY BRICK Since 1987, the University has spent more than $140 million to renovate the campus. And officials say it still has a long way to go. According to Vice President for Facility Management Art Gravina, it all started 10 years ago when the Board of Trustees approached him out of concern about the deteriorating condition of campus buildings, such as Logan Hall. "They recognized the University's obligation to maintain these facilities and asked me how to address the deferred maintenance issue," he said. Since then, renovations have begun on more than five buildings and hundreds of smaller projects have been completed. A project is classified as deferred maintenance when there is not enough funding within the University's normal operating budget to address the deficiencies, according to Gravina. These projects include everything from the roof and sidewalk repairs to the maintenance of facilities, such as College and Logan Halls, the Fisher Fine Arts Library and Franklin Field, he added. Gravina said he launched a comprehensive facility audit in 1985 that looked at the deferred maintenance needs of the campus and put some cost models together. His department performed an internal analysis of the buildings and broke each down by condition. They rated each facility from one to five, with a one meaning immediate repair was necessary and a five meaning the building is in satisfactory condition. "We came up with some cost modeling and recognized the cost as $220 million," he said. This estimate has increased since 1985 because of inflation, worsening conditions and the fact that the original number was just a model, Gravina added. "It didn't pay to spend a million dollars to produce a more accurate figure when we knew that the $220 million was already out of our league," he said. Officials decided to prioritize deferred maintenance, repairing not only the buildings in the worst condition, but also those in moderate need of repair. "We realized we could not take just the worst case," Gravina said. "We wanted to address those buildings needing moderate repair so we could stop the cycle from accelerating." He added that over time, the magnitude of repairs grows exponentially, so what could have cost $50,000 becomes $500,000 if it is not addressed. His department set standards for construction to insure that architects and engineers did not "go cheap," resulting in the need to replace their work, he said. "Most of our backlogging is the result of 'band-aiding'," he said. After extensive analysis, his department developed a five-year plan to attack the problem, he said. The University wanted them to do it on $6.5 million a year. "We felt this was do-able," he said Executive Director of Physical Plant Jim Wargo said out of this budget, $1 million a year is set aside for the mechanical and electrical infrastructure of buildings. The funding for some maintenance projects falls outside of this deferred maintenance budget, he said. Several of these include College and Logan Halls and Franklin Field. Wargo said it was financially necessary for the University to provide additional funding for these projects. "These three jobs cost in the neighborhood of $50 million," he said. "That would make a great impact on our $6.5 million a year." Gravina added that the University recognized a further responsibility to the maintenance of these buildings. "The institution recognizes its obligation to these facilities through deferred maintenance," he said. "They are landmarks of the institution -- we have no alternative but to repair them." Provost Stanley Chodorow said he recognizes the importance of these buildings to the University. "It is certain that we cannot do without these buildings, which are not only in the heart of the campus but are also needed to house many core departments of the School of Arts and Sciences," he said. Gravina added that the money is essentially taken from tuition dollars. "Ultimately it comes back to the school's operating budget," he said. "This is justified in the sense that Franklin Field belongs to the entire institution and College and Logan Halls are landmarks of the institution." Vice President for Finance Stephen Golding assured students that the cost of these renovations does not have an effect on tuition because the costs are built in already. He added that there is no way tuition will increase as a result of these projects. "The Trustees have established a policy whereby the rate of increase for tuition can be no greater than the previous year," he said. Tuition revenue is not the only source of funding for these projects, Golding said, adding that the multiple revenue sources of the University include endowment, sales and services, and student fees. "We look at the overall revenue, growth across the school and center and choose from where [our maintenance budget] will be funded," he said. Chodorow said he is confident that funding for these projects will not have negative affects on the University's finances. "It is true that we need to find the funds to complete those projects, but I am sure that we will and that they will not drag down the finances of the University," he said. Wargo said the administration had to keep the landmark standing of many of the buildings in mind when repairing them. "When you work with landmarks, you have to keep with the historic code," he said. The City Historic Commission advised the department on the appropriate repairs, Gravina said. Wargo said Physical Plant has been working on these three facilities since 1987. The first step was to look at the buildings to decide how to address the project and understand the full scope of the work, he said. He added that with College and Logan Halls, the first priority was to develop a program to work on the envelope of the building. The exterior of Logan Hall should be completed by the end of next summer, while College Hall still has a number of phases to go and probably won't be done until 1999. "Our target was to make the buildings impervious to weather before we continued to the interior," he said. Gravina said the problem with Logan Hall was that the roof and gutter system had failed, resulting in water running down the walls. Workers discovered this when they started to work on the building and the west wall crumbled, he added. "We recognized that the structure was in worse shape than we had realized, so we spent a year trying to understand repair requirements and how we could best restore the building," he said. Gravina said the problem with College and Logan Halls is that they have never really been brought up to the 21st century. The project will include an upgrade of the entire infrastructure, including rewiring of heating, air-conditioning and ventilation for both buildings, he added. Gravina added that a big criteria is to not do something unless it can be done correctly. They have done extensive research to match the brick colors and mortar tones to the originals, he said. "You can't just go out and put Anderson Windows into these historical buildings -- we have them custom built," Gravina said. Franklin Field, the third of the major projects, is also a multi-phase project. When the stadium was built in the 1920s, it had two expansion joints which proved not to be enough to handle expansion, resulting in the end walls on the west side starting to turn and crumble. "So the first phase was to add three more expansion joints and literally cut through the steel to relieve pressure on the ends," he said. Gravina added that over the years, rock salt has deteriorated the concrete and water has gotten under the stadium and rusted it. He said the administration broke these repairs into several phases-- taking the seats out, repairing the concrete, putting in protections against corrosion and putting sealer on the exposed concrete so rain and salt do not hurt it. These phases are almost complete, he said. "We have finished the north upper sections, the south upper and lower sections and we are now working on the east upper and lower sections," he said. "Finally, we will be working on the north lower." Gravina added that they will be putting in all new seating, "renumbered to recognize that people changed in size." The repairs to Franklin Field will not be completed until 1997. Many deferred maintenance projects have been completed. Repairs to the Fisher Fine Arts Library, which begun in 1987, were completed in 1992. The project, which Gravina describes as "restoration and modernization," cost the University $7 million. Golding said that this money was taken from the annual deferred maintenance operating budget. Gravina explained the extent of the repairs that had to be done to the building. "What happened in Furness is that in the 1950s they put an interstitial floor in the Grand room to create more stacks," he said. This was a major fire hazard that could have resulted in the collapse of the entire building, he added. He said the repairs consisted of gutting the floor and putting a new floor system into place, installing a sprinkler and air conditioner system. Gravina added that the reading room area was also restored during that period. Other deferred maintenance projects include the reparation and restoration of the Quadrangle, which cost more than $25 million, and the restoration of the Veterinary Quadrangle, he said. Workers are currently finalizing the Evans Building of the Dental School, addressing the roof and exterior of Bennett Hall, and working on repairs to the Towne Building and the exteriors of Hayden Hall and Meyerson Plaza, he said. In addition, they have replaced acres of roofs throughout campus. "Roofs are a high priority because fixing a leak in the beginning saves the building from future jeopardy," Gravina said. At this point, there are no more projects of the Logan Hall magnitude, he added, but the John Morgan Building and Leidy Laboratories of Biology might be problematic in the future. "Of all our old buildings, those are probably the last two historic buildings," Gravina said. Wargo added that Irvine Auditorium also has to be addressed. "The problem with Irvine Auditorium is that it is very expensive to restore and we want to know what it will be used for," Gravina said. Wargo said they are currently doing a study on Hutchinson Gymnasium and Weightman Hall, and they will be looking at the Palestra in the near future. Gravina explained their planning procedure. "What we are trying to do is forecast for all of the buildings so we can set aside [a little each year] for a major project," he said. "Otherwise one building can wipe out your annual budget." Gravina said the University is well ahead of other institutions when it comes to deferred maintenance programs. "I think that the Trustees and senior administrators started programs long before other institutions got started," he said. "Many other institutions call us to ask how we got started." He added that he is optimistic about the future. "We are a long way from being done, but I think the environment for addressing it has improved dramatically over the last few years," he said.