A multilevel art class is held at the scene of a leak in Fine Arts Rm. 109 Photo by Mark Zimmerman.
The Fine Arts Building became yet another victim of UAA’s February building leaks on Feb. 19. Before the Consortium Library issued a closure notice for a water main burst at 1:44 p.m., Fine Arts Building room 109 reported ceiling leakage at 1:00 p.m. TNL spoke to Beau Pepin and Joshua Morlan of UAA Plumbing Maintenance at the scene of the incident.
“It’s a dielectric union, and they tend to fail within 20 to 30 years,” said Morlan. “It looks like it’s an older style, so it was bound to go.”
A dielectric union is a screwed-on plumbing component, fitted between two pipes of different metals to mitigate corrosion. Pepin and Morlan had isolated the damage that was affecting an adjacent water heater by the time TNL checked back in at 2:30 p.m.
The studio was humming with activity while the leak was underway. A mixed-level sculpture class led by Professor Mariano Gonzalez was proceeding as usual. Students sat at a conference table in the middle of the room to watch a digital presentation at a safe distance from the drip. Sculpture technician and co-curator of the Kimura and Arc galleries Hans Hallinen was manning the back to make sure the leak didn’t damage any work or equipment.
This leak caught the students by surprise: “It happened in the middle of class,” said one of the artists after maintenance had left.
Campus Plumbing Maintenance responded quickly, with the crew scaling a ladder placed near the carved-out section of ceiling.
“It didn’t really affect anything [outside the room] actually,” said Morlan afterward. “There’s other forms of heat circulating through the room so it really didn’t shut anything down.”
This leak was the second of three major ones on campus so far in February. Other than the simultaneous Consortium Library burst, a popped pipe cap caused a flood at the Social Sciences Building Kaladi Brothers Coffee 10 days earlier. The studio was still active after the leak and the sculpture class was held to completion.
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