After more than two years of renovation and restoration, McGraw Tower is finally free of scaffolding. Above all—literally and figuratively—is a brand-new roof.
“Everyone—from the designers and contractors to our campus roofing experts—expects it to last us another hundred years,” says Jon Ladley, director of facilities planning for the University Library.
The $7 million project included not only restoring the roof, but numerous other repairs and weatherproofing to the tower, masonry, and adjacent Uris Library.
It had taken longer than anticipated, due in part to uncooperative weather, as well as the challenge of hiring roofers skilled in the required detail and craftwork.
(Specialist subcontractors were brought in from Ottawa, Canada.)
From a distance, the 173-foot-tall landmark seems much the same, albeit cleaner: the masonry is brighter, the four clockfaces crisper. The new roof retains its historic chevron pattern and deep gray hue.
The most time-consuming part of the project, Ladley says, was the removal and careful replacement of the roof’s lead-coated copper sheets, soldered pans, and wood decking that form its pyramidal shape.
The roof had last been replaced in the 1930s—followed by decades of patchwork repairs to leaking seams.
The new version is fashioned from sheet lead, a more durable and environmentally safe material; its design will aid in more efficient water runoff.
While many of the tower’s improvements are internal—making the entire structure weathertight for future generations—visible upgrades include a new safety railing around the tower’s belfry, which serves as an observation deck.
At 42 inches tall, the new railings are two inches higher than the decorative ones (which remain), in keeping with modern codes.
McGraw Tower, of course, is home to the Cornell Chimes; while no work was done on the bells, they will benefit from the roof replacement and weatherproofing—as will the playing console and the clockworks.
Other exterior work includes repairs to the library entrance stairs and restoration to sections of Uris’s roof.
The tower’s clockfaces were also restored and refinished, and the hands repainted.
During an early condition assessment, Ladley notes, a few of the tower’s original 1891 roof tiles were found in a library attic. One of the glazed, cream-colored Spanish tiles, along with a section of the replaced 1930s-era roof, are now on display in Uris.
The work, Ladley adds, finished up around the time that the Olin Library interior renovations wrapped up next door.
“So we’ve kind of had a soft opening over the summer,” he says. “The Chimes are already back in action; they’ve got the hour bells going, and they’re doing their concerts again.”
No other major construction or renovation work in the area is planned, he adds: “So it’s like a sigh of relief on this corner of the Arts Quad.”
This story originally appeared in Cornellians.
