26/02/08

11:15 The stucco removal was supposed to be carried out today, so I went over to RI Hall to investigate what was happening. I found a van that said 'Custom Drywall' on the side, and walking around the building I found patches where the stucco had been taken off. After walking around a couple times, which was difficult because of the melting snow and mud, I finally saw someone who looked like they were involved in the stucco testing (all the other people I saw were students who looked at me strangely for circling the building). Henry said that he was responsible for removing the five patches of stucco that had been selected by someone from the office, and someone from Brown (he thought it was a lady, maybe Sue Alcock?). Interestingly, he said that the same areas of stucco had been removed at some point before, because there are marks on the stone underneath from a previous removal. He pointed out the circular marks that I had noticed in the patches, and he said he had not made them. This was evident when I saw his method of removing the stucco later. On the patch on the south-west corner he showed me how the removed stucco had fallen apart into the circular shape it had been removed in last time. This means that the testing is being done in the exact same places as last time, and I am assuming this was the exterior renovation carried out in 1995. Henry also pointed out that the more of the stucco had been removed in some places than in others, as some patches were as much as 3.5 inches deep, whereas the one on the south-west corner was only an inch deep. I asked him about the lift, which had apparently been the reason for the delay yesterday, as it was not able to work in the snowy conditions, but he said that he wasn't using it because all the selected patches are at ground level. He thought that it might be used later in the day by the other people who were involved in actually testing and evaluating the stucco. His job was just to remove it and then let his superintendent know when he was done. There was no one else at the site, so when I had photo documented the removed stucco I left. I will try and go back later to see if I can record and find out about the rest of the process.

13:00 I am back in the John Hay to scan some more of the mason's specification. When I went by RI Hall there was still only Henry around.

16:00 The 'Custom Drywall' van is no longer parked on George Street, and I don't see anyone around the building. I don't know if the day's work was concluded, or if they decided to delay it again because it is raining at the moment. I will try and find out what happened.

27/02/08

9:00 Today is the second day of stucco testing, and walking around the building I found 3 instruments on tripods that I learned were being used for surveying purposes. The two guys carrying out the surveying were using the instruments to obtain exact measurments between various points. They said that as far as they knew they were not connected with the stucco removal and testing.

Walking around the building also revealed that three more samples of stucco had been removed, although I notice that none has as yet been taken from the East side. I saw Henry around again, but I did not get a chance to talk to him.

14:00 The lift was being used by Henry and another man, whom I learned was Matthew Bronski, a staff engineer/architectural designer with the company Simon Gumpertz & Heger (as his card that he gave me informed me). I talked to him briefly, and learned that the stucco testing was being carried due to concerns about the cracking of the stucco in places, and that representative panels were being taken from different parts of the exterior. The tapping of the walls that I saw and recorded on video footage was to gauge the solidity or hollow-ness of the stucco walls in different areas. What I found strange was that they tapped the wall of the East side (as seen in the video) and marked out and labelled a panel, but never removed the stucco there. Maybe they intend to do it tomorrow.

28/02/08

10:45 Scanning more of the documents on RI Hall in the John Hay.

3:30 After my meeting with Chris Witmore I went back to the site to take a look at what the stucco removers had left behind the day after stucco testing . Most of the main blocks of stucco that had been lying on the ground where they fell had been removed, presumably for testing in the labs. There were still some shards, and I photographed the ground by each sample for comparison with the days before. I also collected two of the larger blocks I found. The ground was also interesting today because the snow had finally melted away. The 'path' by the north side of the building has been a slush of ice and mud over the past two days but today the ice had completely melted away, and the mud solidified. What was left was a multitude of footprints, all from the same person, probably Henry, as he had been walking back and forth countless times in this area over the past two days. Also remaining were some of the marks from the wood planks that had been placed under the lift for better support, and then moved around as the needs of the people working demanded. The panel that was marked out on the East side is still intact, so maybe they do not intend to remove it.

3/3/08

12:00 I noticed yesterday that the sample panels had been covered up, but I was unable to photograph them because I was on a tight schedule. I returned today after class to take a closer look and document it. The areas where a sample had been taken had been covered with a wooden board, painted the colour of the stucco, with screws used to secure it. It seems that this is a temporary measure to protect the exposed material while the stucco is being tested, and before the samples are filled in again. After looking at all the panels again, five out of a total nine have been taken from the North face of the building. This would seem to make sense as the cracking is noticeably worse on the North side.

14:30 I am back in the John Hay scanning the rest of documents on subscriptions for RI Hall. Hopefully I will get to start on some of the exterior photographs today as well.

17:10 Walking back over the main green I decided to take a walk around RI Hall to see what there was to see. I ended up on the second floor, and decided that I would investigate the staircase that had been discovered on a previous visit that leads up to a third floor space. Originally this was the attic referred to in the Encyclopedia Brunoniana entry for RI Hall- a short history ("at the beginning of the century...the osteological collection was placed in the attic, where the professors had to climb whenever bones were needed in the classroom.) It has clearly not been in use for years, as the step corners are filled with cobwebs and there is debris and dust everywhere. A heater and a tall cardboard box have been awkwardly stuffed at the base of the staircase, probably because there was no where else to store them. At the top of the steps I found an abandoned space with a skylight that has become an area to leave unwanted objects. There were window frames, glass panes, an aluminium gutter, and wooden planks as well as older items such as a large chest, and some kind of decorated metal trough, just sitting in the space. There were some relatively modern signs of use, with a paint can, a plastic bucket, and newspapers dating from 1995 that suggest the last time this space was used was during the exterior rennovation done in that year. This would make sense, as there is a trapdoor that I assume leads out onto the roof, a position useful for the exterior restoration. The space was high enough for a person to walk around comfortably, but I could also see through into another area that I could not get into. The lack of light in this other area meant that I could not really see what was in there, but the flash from my camera showed me that the space was filled with wooden chairs. There must have been another entrance to that part of this floor at some point, and I don't think that the people up here in 1995 would have been using it. The amount of light in the space is really incredible, and it's a shame this illuminated space is not being made better use of. The other thing that struck me about the space was how quiet is seemed despite the noise of the wind all around.

After returning to the slightly more inhabited part of RI Hall, I also photo documented the second floor cupboard directly across from the door behind which the staircase is located. Interestingly, there is a hole in the cupboard ceiling and from what I can see there is level above it. The orientation is just close enough that it might be the area with all the chairs that I could see earlier. Unfortunately my flash did not reveal enough to be able to tell. The variety of objects in this cupboard was interesting because there were items that had clearly sat there for a while due to all the dust, but there was also a more recent file that had been stuck in the cupboard at some point. It was Lianna Lipton's file for 'Quantitative Methods in Psychology' that had met last semester in RI Hall 201, MWF from 1:00-1:50. The differences between the inside and the outside of the door was telling, as care has been taken to repaint the outside a clean white whilst the inside reveals dirt, age and wear.

notebook- spring 2008
Archaeological documentation