Irvine steeple close to crumbling

Irvine Auditorium's 30-foot steeple is coming apart piece by piece. But now the Physical Plant Department has secured the lead and steel structure so no further damage can occur, and officials have launched an investigation into the problem and possible solutions. When a Physical Plant employee recently inspected the roof, he unexpectedly found an piece of lead sitting there and realized that the steeple was beginning to fall apart, according to Physical Plant Executive Director Jim Wargo. Vice President of Facilities Management Arthur Gravina said the fallen piece of lead did not cause any damage to the roof. The department has covered and secured the steeple while structural engineers look into the situation, Wargo said. "We wrapped it so nothing will fall off of it and put up plastic netting to hold it together," he said. "We've been working on it to understand what the problems are." Irvine was built in 1928. There are no readily available blueprints of the construction of the steeple. However, Wargo said the department has learned that the structure is made of lead internally, with a steel structure surrounding it. Gravina said the steeple is actually made of sections of lead pieced together by pins. The lead has corroded and the structure has not been renovated in years. Gravina said no one in Physical Plant could remember the last time the steeple had been repaired, but he added that it was probably within the last 50 years. Physical Plant renovated Irvine's interior in October in preparation for University President Judith Rodin's inaugural ceremonies. Then, officials painted sections of the auditorium, repaired seats, and wired the facility for ResNet and the Academic Video Network. The discovery of the steeple's corrosion, however, had no connection with those repairs. Physical Plant has retained a structural engineer to research and investigate the problem and develop a proposal for fixing the steeple. In addition, Physical Plant employees are in the process of gathering documents and information about Irvine in order to understand more about the structure and how to best repair it. Once Physical Plant accepts the structural engineers' proposal, the department must go through the bidding process to hire a contractor before doing the actual repairs. Wargo said one difficulty that workers have and will continue to encounter involves the actual process of getting up to the steeple and repairing it, since it is so high. Gravina said the project has been labeled within the deferred maintenance category and added that the repair will probably begin this summer. But Wargo said -the entire process will take a long time -- although he could not specify how long the project might take. He said he could not estimate how much the project would cost.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.