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AMAM falling apart, leaking at the seams

by Traci Langworthy

In places, the water is literally dripping out of the walls.

Inspired by this and other findings of a team of architects and historic preservation consultants, the Board of Trustees recently approved a shift of the College's building maintenance funds that will make the Allen Memorial Art Museum's building complex the highest priority.

According to Chair Bill Perlick, measures approved by the Board of Trustees in March include a transfer of $600,000 from funds originally intended for other maintenance projects to the recommended interim restoration work on the art complex. "The museum is now top priority," Perlick said.

"This is clearly a building complex in crisis," the Executive Summary report said of the older museum building and the newer Venturi addition which houses classrooms and the Art Library.

Hired by Oberlin College in October 1996, the team of preservation consultants responsible for the report was led by the Ohio architectural firm of Williams Trebilcock Whitehead. The report went on to conclude, "The deterioration is so severe that interim measures should be taken to stabilize the two structures, prior to a complete construction program."

Also present at the trustees meeting was the museum's Acting Director Marjorie Wieseman. "It was really encouraging to me how quickly [the trustees] responded," she said. "No one questioned the urgency of the problem."

"If you walk around the outside of the building, " Wieseman said, "you can notice stains and salts and how some of the stones have shifted through the years."

These visible contrasts in the stones' color and alignment are evidence for the larger contrasts in temperature and humidity, inside and outside the buildings, that are fueling the structural damage.

"The problem, in a nutshell, is one that afflicts a lot of museums, especially older buildings," Wieseman said.

Designed by Cass Gilbert along Italian Renaissance models, the main museum building was built in 1917. According to Wieseman, its original design included built-in air circulation vents to control moisture and ventilation.

When the Venturi addition was added in 1977, a complete climate control system was also installed in the Gilbert building to give the museum the control over temperature and relative humidity necessary for the proper care of the collection. However, some of the original ventilation vents were sealed. At the same time, the temperature and relative humidity of the building were increased as planned, in the interests of the collection.

According to Wieseman, workers who were still unaware of the implications sealed more of the original vents during a 1991 renovation.

The net result of these actions has been to place a modern climate control system, with increased temperature and humidity, into a building which can't handle the increased differences in climate on the opposite sides of its walls, especially in times of cold weather.

Essentially, warm, moist air, in an effort to migrate from the higher air pressure inside of the buildings to the lower air pressure outside, has been condensing and seeping through the walls.

While the circumstances are different for each building, the Executive Summary report concluded that "the recurrent theme is water vapor transmission and condensation within building materials, due to the presence of higher levels of ambient humidity in both buildings than the construction as presently constituted can tolerate."

Furthermore, Wieseman said, "While the moisture and insidious destruction of the stone is gradual, it gets exponentially worse every year." This is due to the already weakened condition of the stones when the new year's damages set in.

In order to equip the buildings with the necessary moisture-control capabilities, more adequate ventilation and insulation systems will eventually be installed. In addition to the repair of affected stones, the Executive Summary report also calls for work on windows, doors and exterior trim, as well as the replacement of the Gilbert roof and extensive changes to the Gilbert attic. Preliminary estimates for the long-term costs of renovation are between five and six million dollars.

Wieseman said the difficulty in long-term renovations will be finding a compromise between what is optimal for the collection and what is optimal for the building that houses it. While the collection is healthiest at a temperature of 70 degrees and relative humidity of 45 to 50 percent, the building is healthiest at a 60 degree temperature and 20 percent relative humidity.


Photo:
Where the old meets the new: The Venturi addition to the AMAM, shown on the right, was added in 1977. (photo by Hedi Johansen)


Oberlin

Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 18; March 28, 1997

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