More Architectural Follies

I was recently reading a publication we get at work (Energy Design Update), and they had a news snippet a Harvard building that's failing spectacularly--Werner Otto Hall, which is an addition on the back of the Fogg Museum.


CAMBRIDGE, MA — Plagued by saturated walls and persistent condensation problems, a multi-million-dollar Harvard University museum, Werner Otto Hall, is scheduled for demolition only 17 years after the building opened. The museum’s HVAC system was designed to pressurize the building, in spite of the fact that the interior relative humidity was kept at 50% year round. During the winter, moist interior air was driven into the building’s walls, leading to extensive condensation. Explained architectural consultant Jim Collins, “You’ve got an engine pumping moist air into the wall.” Charles Gwathmey, the building’s architect, counters that the wall design was “just fine.” Gwathmey blames condensation problems on the builders, speculating that they failed to install an airtight vapor barrier. According to the Boston Globe, “There were times when the walls were soaked through.… Harvard sued the architect and the contractor in 1996. As usual in such legal matters, neither side will talk for the record, but word on the street is that the parties split the cost of repairs — repairs that proved, in the end, not to make any difference.” The building now awaits the wrecking ball.

Awesome, spectacular failures, right down the street! What could be better? BTW--I have given the warning before on my blog (see The Good, the Bad, and the Moldy):

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU RUN YOUR HOUSE AT 50% RELATIVE HUMIDITY AND 20° C ALL WINTER LONG! IT IS BAD! DO NOT DO THIS!

There's additional detail in a Boston Globe article: "Falling down: As it faces demolition, Harvard's Otto Hall provides an object lesson in the perils of museum design," if you're interested in more detail (as well as a picture).

I have to strongly object to one of the lines in the story, however: "It's important to understand that this kind of sophisticated climate control was still fairly new at the time Otto was designed. Art curators were making demands that neither the world of architects nor the world of engineers and contractors had quite caught up with."

Actually, an assembly that handles these conditions very well is shown in the published literature--done by Canadians, from goddamn 1964 (actually, it is written by my mentor's mentor's mentor. Great-grand mentor?). This is the exact type of wall you would want to use in challenging conditions like this (50% RH, cold climate, pressurized building)--you can see a more contemporary write-up of this same assembly.

Of course, with a building failure like this just down the street, I had to go check it out myself. I biked over on the way to Micro Center and took a few photos.


Nothing too spectacular to report--the only visible damage was all of the rust stains of the caulk joints of the metal panel system on the outside. Oh, BTW--that panel system is essentially functioning as a perfect vapor barrier on the wrong side of the building. Woohoo!


I definitely need to get a chance to check out the exhibits (and the building) inside, before it gets torn down: "The museum owned world-class works by such artists as Joseph Beuys and Max Beckmann"--but not Zombie Joseph Beuys, I assume.