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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