News

Evaluation conducted on Old Main

By Scott Wagar

12/02/2014

The Old Main Committee has brought in EAPC Architects and Engineers from its Minot office to evaluate Old Main after it was discovered that an air ventilation shaft in the structure failed and caused damage to the building, which has brought concern to the committee members in the vitality of the edifice. 

Alan Dostert, AIA and EAPC’s president and CEO; Jay Kleven, PE principal civil structural engineer and Roger Kluck, PE senior civil engineer conducted the evaluation in the 107 year old building and found the structure to be in good shape. 

“We found that the building generally was in pretty good shape considering its age and the several years with no heat.  The primary area of concern was the failing air shaft near the north door. To a bit lesser extent the south air shaft as time goes on will become a concern also,” Kluck said. 

“Our inspection found that the foundation for the north air shaft had failed and there was a collapse of the brick supporting wall structure. When the building was originally built the second and third floors were supported by the air shafts on the interior sides of each floor.  The result with the wall collapse of the north air shaft was to pull the floors with it.

“The north stair tower is also tied to the air shaft and is showing distress,” Kluck added. “We did see that along with disconnecting the floors from the air shafts we would want to put a new roof on the building as a long term safeguard for the building and bring back a permanent heating source.”

The committee was surprised to hear that Old Main hasn’t been heated for the majority of the time the building has been closed, because the committee members thought the college was in agreement with them to keep the structure heated. Dr. Ken Grosz, dean of Dakota College at Bottineau, and the chair of the Old Main Committee, said that state funding wasn’t included to heat Old Main because it isn’t a structure that is being utilized by the college.

Outside of a new roof, Kluck introduced three other phases the committee must do to keep the building stabilized, which includes new footings on the north side, to make the floors independent of the ventilation shaft, and place heat in the structure to keep it from deteriorating any further.

“The next step is to design a new footing system for walls to be constructed to disconnect the floors and stair towers from the air shafts. The wall system design would look at wood versus steel materials and the constructability inside the confined spaces,” Kluck said. 

“This portion of the work will involve jacking up of the floors as they are disconnected from the air shafts and leveling where needed. Fortunately the roof is independent of the air shafts but as part of the re-roofing we would remove the portions of the chimney and air shafts above the attic floor and plug the holes prior to roofing. 

“The underside of the roof structure looked to be in good shape and the roof was independent of the interior floor systems,” Kluck continued to say. “The roofing portion of the project would evaluate the pros and cons of materials to get the best return on the investment.”  

Kluck also stated that support system in the attic which Joseph Shannon (Old Main’s architect) devised for the building was intriguing. 

“It was interesting to see trusses in the attic helping to hold up the underlying floors in much the same way as the old truss bridges on rural roads,” he said.

One discussion of Old Main by the committee is to remove the north shaft all together and install an elevator in its place, which would make the edifice ADA compliant.  

The final phase Kluck spoke on was returning heat to the building. 

“This could be steam from the central plant or a furnace system using electricity, natural gas or propane,” Kluck said. 

With these phases being complete, Kluck stated that Old Main would be a worthy structure to rehabilitate and utilize for educating DCB’s students.

“Once the structure is stabilized, the heat established, and a new roof put on, the committee would have breathing room to raise funds for interior remodeling with the long term intent of re-using the well aged building,” Kluck said. 

Presently, Grosz is reviewing EAPC’s proposal for architect and engineering services, along with researching the cost of heating the building independently of state funding. 

Grosz is also taking into consideration cleaning materials out of the building (out-of-date computers, desks, ect…) and perhaps allowing the general public to purchase some of the items.
The decisions by Grosz should be made sometime in December.