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Hale Library: Week five update

Posted on by Rebekah Branch

Today marks five weeks since the May 22 fire at Hale Library. In this update, we have a lot to share about our demolition progress.

A huge amount of damaged drop ceiling, drywall and carpet has been removed.

Ceilings

Ceiling grid and tiles are caving in after suffering water damage.
Second floor, Media Development Center, May 31, before ceiling removal.
Ceiling tiles and grids are removed from a hallway, exposing pipes and electric wiring.
Second floor after ceiling tiles were removed, June 14.
A room with ceiling grids up without ceiling tiles, leaving the tubes and electric exposed, while the furniture is covered in white plastic.
Second floor after ceiling tiles were removed, June 8.
Ceiling grids have been removed from the library and tubes and wiring are even more exposed, while furniture is covered in white plastic.
Second floor of Hale Library with all ceiling grids removed, June 14.

Walls

There was also extensive water damage to the drywall. In some areas, only a few feet needed to be removed, but in other parts, the entire wall had to be demolished and only metal studs remain.

Yellow wall with spray paint marking two feet of wall needing to be removed, while two feet of the wall has been removed, exposing metal studs.
Second floor, June 14. Two feet of the wall was removed since only the lower portion was damaged
Dry wall has been removed, leaving only metal studs in its wake and exposing a wall sign for the Center for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship.
First floor, June 8. In the Center for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship (CADS), half to all of the drywall was removed.
A hallway has all of the carpet, ceiling tiles, and try wall removed, leaving only metal studs and cement flooring.
First floor, northwest corner, looking east down the hallway that runs between Room 117 and Stack A, June 14. The majority of the drywall was removed from this portion of the building.
A room with debris over the floor and a single light in the middle of the room shows a wall with only metal studs and no dry wall.
Fourth floor, Academic Learning Center, June 14. The ALC is the on-campus tutoring facility for student athletes; this space experienced extensive damage and will be gutted.
A stairwell is caution taped off with the side wall exposing metal studs and electric wiring.
Fourth floor, north stairwell, June 14.
Dry wall has been removed showing a limestone wall behind metal studs.
Second floor, June 14. When drywall was removed, limestone from the exterior of the 1955 Farrell Library addition was exposed.
Looking through a metal chainlink fence lays brown baseboards next to purple dumpsters.
Baseboards were water damaged and will be disposed of along with the drywall and drop ceiling system.

Furniture and technology: Soot damage

Most of the furniture in the building was damaged beyond repair and will need to be thrown away. The tables that were located across all five floors of the building suffered so much smoke damage that the toxic soot cannot be cleaned off of them.

Already, the majority of the furniture from the first through the third floors has been disposed of. All told, it filled a large industrial dumpster 65 times.

Because the soot from the smoke is so toxic, every inch of ductwork in the 550,000-square-foot building will need to be taken down and professionally cleaned.

In addition to the ductwork, all surfaces of every room will have to be professionally cleaned to eliminate the soot. Cleaning the first through fourth floors could take about ten weeks.

Blue topped tables sitting in a row next to each other.
The tables sustained a significant amount of smoke damage. Most have been disposed of.
A mouse has been moved on a blue desk to reveal a light blue outline of the mouse.
When loose items that were left on the tables were picked up and moved, it was easy to see how much soot coated all surfaces throughout the building.

Furniture: Water damage

The original Farrell library tables suffered intense water damage that stripped and warped the wood beyond repair. These photos were taken two days after the May 22 fire.

A grey capital has fallen on a water damaged table.
The Great Room tables sustained a significant amount of water damage.
Brown wood tables are warped and wavy after severe water damage.
Both the veneer and the underlying wood was cracked and warped from prolonged exposure to water.

Book Retrieval

Luckily, not everything was completely unsalvageable. While removing books, the crew and staff were in desperate need of book carts and were able to salvage 30 book carts from the fifth floor.

Progress continues on the book retrieval process. At this point, 30,000 full boxes of books have been removed.

Rows of colorful book carts are lined up against the wall.
Book carts, fifth floor, June 14.
Rows of deconstructed cardboard boxes are lined up against the wall from floor to ceiling.
This is just a small percentage of the boxes that are ready to be assembled and packed with books that will be relocated relocated offsite for cleaning and storage.
On the right are cleared off white bookshelves and on the left the wall is lined with brown cardboard boxes.
The entirety of the Music and Art collection has been boxed and moved off of the fourth floor.

Technology

In the last week, the data center, which had been operating off of generators, was returned to commercial power.

Additionally, the electronics in the building have been assessed, and about 70 percent of what was deemed a loss has been prepared for disposal through the e-waste process.

Dozens of computer screens sit on a concrete floor.
Damaged computers waiting for the e-waste process.

Obviously, there are many moving parts to the recovery process. Before we can implement our plans for K-State’s future Hale Library, the damaged portions of the building must cleared out. We are making strides forward every day.

We’d like to extend our deep appreciation to our K-State Libraries and Information Technology coworkers and the Belfor team for everything they’ve accomplished thus far.

 

 

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