The new exterior lighting system for Gasson Hall was given a trial run recently.
New Life for Gasson Tower
With renovation done, BC landmark is now set to last 'twice as long'
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The Gasson Hall Tower, the 95-year-old signature spire of Boston College's famed "Towers on the Heights" will majestically "reach to Heaven's own blue" for centuries to come following completion of a major phase of the building's renovation, according to the BC administrator managing the work."This tower will probably last twice as long as the original," says Director of Capital Construction John Romeo, whose department oversaw the 18-month, $10 million restoration project. The work involved taking down the top 40 feet of the tower piece-by-piece, replicating cast stone elements in a perfect match to the original structure – first known as "The Tower Building" – that opened in 1913.
Cast stone is pre-cast concrete that is fabricated to closely match the appearance of natural stone. The cast stone at Gasson Hall was intended to replicate Indiana limestone.
A new exterior lighting system to illuminate the building is being designed and will be installed in the near future. Meanwhile, the refurbished tower's famed quarter-hour and Angelus bells have been reactivated.
Future phases of the building's reconstruction will involve adding handicapped-access entry ramps, installing new windows, and replacing the cast stone porticos on the east and west sides of the building and the cast stone wall and quoins (corner caps) and stone ornamentation on the lower half of the historic hall.
"We found some original Maginnis and Walsh drawings of Gasson Hall which helped us as we designed the restoration work," explains Romeo. "From 2004 through 2006, we took information on every stone in the building – and there are almost 8,000 of them." The in-depth study suggested that there was some deterioration occurring in the cast stone sections of the structure, and although there was no immediate danger, remedial steps needed to be taken.
Phoenix Bay State Construction Co. of Boston, a firm that specializes in historic stone projects, began work immediately after Commencement in 2007 and completed the first phase last month. "They have done a spectacular job," Romeo says. "We had the best in the business doing the work on the building. They took great ownership of the project, and you can see them beaming when they hear people talking about how great it looks now.
"We were also fortunate to have an excellent architect, Wendall Kalsow, and stone conservator Ivan Myjer," he says. "They approached the work on the building as if they owned it. We had a great team which is the recipe for a successful project."
The central tool of the reconstruction project was a 200-foot tower crane with a 136-foot reach and a 5,000 lb. lift capacity that was erected at the back side of Gasson specifically for the project.
This crane, along with a team of skilled workers, carefully removed the top of the tower and the cast stone side and corner stone sections of the tower. The best specimen of each unique shape was then sent to a pre-cast fabrication company in Canada where these items were meticulously reproduced and shipped back to Chestnut Hill, a process that took nearly a year.
When the new cast stone materials were placed back on the tower, each stone was engineered and set into position using up to four stainless steel anchors, replacing the steel pins used in the original construction that had rusted over time. "Now we have a better quality of concrete, better information on the strength of the stone and better technologies to make and install it," Romeo says.
Romeo notes that the original cast stone was fabricated to look like limestone but was made with a black aggregate and darkened as it weathered out over the years. "Now we are so much smarter in making it better, making it stronger and designed to hold up against weather conditions. This time around, we used lighter colored aggregates that more closely match the exterior color, so when these materials ultimately weather, they will not change in appearance as noticeably," he says. The new pre-cast stone gives a far brighter appearance to the top and corners of the tower.
"All of the construction team was shocked at how well this building was built back then," Romeo says. "It's mind boggling how they got some of those pieces of stone up there."
Romeo says that the puddingstone pieces of the building —most of which were quarried right on the site of Gasson Hall — have held up remarkably well. "Only about one percent of those stones had to be replaced," he says. "The quality of work done back then was tremendous."
Reid Oslin can be reached at reid.oslin.1@bc.edu