Masonry Magazine October 1998 Page. 25
Call This Job a
Towering Success
Cornell University's McGraw Tower
Undergoes Historic Renovation
As part of Cornell University's renovation of the McGraw Tower, a unique scaffolding system is being used to elevate workers to the top of the 173 foot structure.
The erection of scaffolding on all four sides of the tower will aid in the repair of deteriorated masonry joints, infiltrated walls and eroded stone work, caused by 107 years of exposure to Ithaca winds and rain. The scaffolding is also intended to ease the removal of the tower's 19 bells, which are to be sent to Georgetown, Ohio, for tuning.
"They needed a system that was flexible and durable," Mike Bredl of Universal Manufacturing said. "Our system scaffolding can handle the loading requirements, and its flexibility will allow them to easily disassemble areas when the bells are removed. The inclusion of an integrated stair case makes the job much more efficient and safer for the workers."
"Thanks to advance planning by our engineering team, the scaffold construction was fast and efficient," said James Bucko, Cornell University's project manager.
While erecting 55 tons of scaffolding is no small feat in itself, the age and size of the tower created some additional challenges for the scaffold engineering team.
One of the first challenges was seating the base of the scaffolding.
"We had some sort of obstacle on all four sides of the tower," said Joe Petrolle, contracting specialist for Albany Ladder. "The job required some extensive procedures before we could even begin erecting the scaffolding."
One side of the tower adjoins a neighboring building, but the scaffolding could not be seated directly on the roof because of concerns about the roof's capacity.
"What we wound up doing was creating a steel support structure directly over the roof," Bucko said. "We had 24 inch I-beams shipped in from Canada, which we seated in pockets that were cut into both the tower and the adjoining building. A cantilever was created with the crossbeams, and then we welded the scaffolding directly to the beams.
"We also had to use I-beams to carry the weight on another side of the tower," Bucko added. "There's a stone deck that covers an underground room, and again we were concerned about the roof capacity. So we spanned the deck with 47 foot long I-beams."
With the scaffolding in place, work is ready to begin on Come University's McGraw Tower. The complete masonry repointing job and bell tuning is expected to take 12 months.
MASONRY-SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, 1995 25