Johns Hopkins Gazette | March 30, 2009
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The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University March 30, 2009 | Vol. 38 No. 28
 
Time to Work Outdoors

When clear skies returned to Baltimore on Friday morning, workers ascended Gilman's scaffolding to continue restoration of the 95-year-old building.
Photo by Will Kirk / HIPS

By Greg Rienzi
The Gazette

With spring now sprung, the exterior portion of Gilman Hall's renovation has gone into full bloom. In the coming months, crews will make minor repairs, restore some original elements and replace 182 windows to enhance the building's energy efficiency.

Crews recently erected a wall of scaffolding around the full perimeter of the 95-year-old Homewood building and on most days can be seen outdoors giving it some touch-up work.

The crews will first clean masonry, re-point defective mortar joints and then repair portions of the roof, replacing the copper flashing and the missing pieces of Vermont slate. Some areas around the dormers will be repaired and re-clad in copper to fix leakage problems, and the Hutzler Reading Room's copper roof will be renewed.

The clock tower will soon feature a restored cupola with a new copper roof and replacement urns for those that are missing or leaning. The entire tower will later be scraped down and repainted.

Elsewhere, the front porch will be raised a step to be flush with the main entry hall, and two ADA-compliant ramps will make the main entrance accessible.

For the apse terrace, located outside the Donovan Room, plans are to renew the clay tile deck now hidden under a pea gravel rooftop system. In addition, the marble stairs that cascade from the terrace will be cleaned, repaired and preserved.


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