The Aidekman Arts Center basement reopened yesterday, ending over two weeks of frustration for arts students whose classes and rehearsals had been relocated due to flooding that left some areas submerged under more than four feet of water.
In the aftermath of the water main break on Feb. 7, the basement has been closed to students and faculty, denying them access to practice rooms, classrooms, ensemble rooms and offices.
"It was a tremendous inconvenience for music, drama, dance, art history students and students involved somehow with the arts," Music Department Publicist and Events Manager Ryan Saunders said.
Over the past several days, Facilities has taken apart walls and floors, extracting water with the help of Munters Corporation, a contracting company that specializes in dehumidification and disaster restoration. Workers from Tufts OneSource also aided in the renovation process.
"We've been drying things out," Director of Medford Facilities Ron Esposito said. "It looks like we were able to get away without a lot of damage."
While that was happening, many professors have had to relocate their classes in order to accommodate the restoration process.
"I was teaching a course; it was down in Aidekman 12," Associate Professor of Dance and Drama Downing Cless said. "It had to be displaced and it still is, because there's no [technical] equipment and students have to do PowerPoint [presentations]."
"For me, it's been a minor inconvenience," Cless said. "With our acting classes it's been much more of a problem because they haven't been able find space that can accommodate the teaching of acting."
In addition, other problems persist. For instance, grand pianos are still absent from the teaching studios under Aidekman. Saunders said that they will be moved back in shortly. "That will happen in the next couple days," he said.
The flood threw the music department off-track, Saunders said. "It did a lot of damage. [OneSource and Facilities] have been working almost non-stop. Both teams worked exceptionally hard."
The restoration process was complicated and difficult due to the extent of the water damage. Studio 12, located under Jackson Gymnasium, was inundated by about 40,000 gallons of water, according to Esposito. The entire room had to be completely redone.
"We replaced the walls and floor," he said. "That [room] had sheetrock walls, which fortunately we could get at right away."
In other rooms, the cove base - a lining that runs along the bottom of the walls and borders the floor - had to be torn off in order to help the walls dry. "We cut holes in the wall under the [cove basing]," Esposito said.
"They had to get behind the walls, because a lot was wet," Saunders said. Wires, Ethernet connections and lights are all buried behind the walls.
According to Saunders, the electrical damage was the biggest concern.
"The electrical [wiring] is ... the worry," he said. "You never want to have water dripping from electrical lines. The problems with water damage [come from] the stuff that you can't see."
Another room that required a great deal of attention was the world music room, which houses precious Asian and African instruments and has new bamboo flooring.
"We were able to send a miniature camera under the floor of the room," Esposito said. "Early on, we were blowing dehumidified air onto the floors. The bamboo floor doesn't look like it was damaged at all."
Although not all of the musical equipment in the basement was saved, the majority endured only minor damages. But some of the amps and other items requiring electricity were ruined, Saunders said.
While classes and ensembles were forced to relocate over the last several days, the music and drama departments worked to accommodate students.
"We had a student sitting out in the box office from 5 [p.m.] to 11 [p.m.] every weeknight over the last two weeks, and they let in whatever kids wanted to practice into classrooms with pianos," Saunders said.
Looking ahead, Facilities is concerned that future problems may arise because of the flood.
"We're definitely going to need to watch things," Esposito said. "We're hopeful that things won't deteriorate, but we're going to keep an eye on it."
