By Emily Ingco
Goldilocks might not want to major in theater.
Southwestern’s acclaimed new Performing Arts Center, the showcase edifice of the college’s 30 year, $850 million reconstruction process, has students and staff running hot and cold.
And wet.
PAC is one of at least three brand new buildings with the problems of very old buildings. New facilities for campus police and institutional technology are also suffering from heating and cooling issues as well as leaks some employees say endanger their health.
Also endangered is the health of SC’s multimillion dollar mainframe servers and data center which requires constant cooling to prevent overheating. Air conditioning failures and close calls with triple digit temperatures have evoked memories of the notorious July 15, 2015 mainframe meltdown that caused millions of dollars in damages to the IT system and the destruction of thousands of student records.
Angela Cardenas, an administrative assistant in the IT building, said the new $ 25.6 million facility has had serious problems since staff moved in last summer. An IT staffer likened it to “10 months of whack-a-mole.”
Cardenas said the heating and air conditioning problems were there at the outset.
“When we first moved in, I knew that all the IT technicians (on the other side of the building) were complaining that it was too hot in there and everybody over here was freezing,” she said. “I think the A/C and heat were not working. I put in one (work) request because (the dean’s) office felt really cold.”
MELTDOWN WORRIES RETURN
Summer heat brought cold terror to IT staff, Cardenas said, when the air conditioning failed to keep the mainframe chamber cool enough. A catastrophic meltdown in 2015 was on leadership’s minds during construction of the new building. Another meltdown may have been narrowly averted.
Then there are the water issues.
When Cardenas returned from winter break she said she wondered if she was dreaming when she heard it was “raining indoors.” Leaks were reported in at least two different areas of her department’s half of the building.
“There was one in John (Elder’s) office,” she said. “Same thing with (the office of) Eduardo (Diaz). There was also a leak in the office by the conference room. That one was a big leak because the ceiling tile got very wet and it fell apart. The bulletin board got stained, so they had to purchase a new one.”
She immediately submitted a Service Now work request for these leaks, she said, and received help within a week. Days later, however, the leak in Diaz’s office returned as bad as ever. It was dripping right by his chair.
“For a while there, we kept going back and forth (with Facilities personnel),” he said. “Every time it rained, the leak would reappear the next day. We submitted a report, and someone would come in and work on it.”
Diaz’s ceiling still leaks and the carpet in the office has been dampened. He said it is stressful worrying about the leak, the damage it is doing to the carpet and the health hazards that can accompany wet carpeting.
Besides temperature and moisture issues, the building described as “state of the art” by its head contractor also has problems with its front door alarm going off randomly.
“It’s like a damn car alarm in the parking lot at Walmart,” said an IT employee. “We’ve basically stopped paying attention to it.”
SOGGY, COLD POLICE STATION
A new $6.8 million Campus Police Station right across the street from IT is having virtually the same problems.
Chief Safety Officer Marco Bareno said when the rains began in late 2022, leaks followed.
“One of the officers discovered a leak in the men’s locker room area,” he said. “Another one was in their workout area and I think the third one was in the conference room.”
SCPD Officer Mark Rensink later reported a leak in a restroom.
“I think we only found it a couple weeks ago,” he said.
Water damage has caused ceiling bubbles to pop out like a rash. Bone white paint has darkened as it absorbs water.
In contrast to the speedy service Cardenas said she received in IT, the leaks in the Campus Police building were not fixed for months after the initial Service Now work request was submitted.
“I remember when they came in to check,” Bareno said. “There was a bubbling on the side of the vents, which was due to condensation on the seal of the air conditioning ducts. The damage of the condensation of the humidity and the fix of the actual physical leak was done a bit sooner. I want to say a couple of months for the fixing of the leaks. They are slowly repairing the bubbling.”
Bareno said the water issues are irritating, but did not interfere with the conduct of police business.
“It is expected when you move into a new building to have issues and kinks like that,” he said. “My only concern is health issues. A leak obviously needs to be fixed quickly because there’s the potential of fungus growing over time and it can create health issues for the employees. For us, the leaks have not impacted our health and were mainly a concern of deterioration over time of the wall and ceiling for the bubbling (as well as) the flooring.”
Like the IT team, campus police officers shivered in low temperatures when the heater stopped working.
“I received an email from one of my employees saying ‘Hey, it’s pretty cold in here,’” Bareno said. “I could feel the cold when I came to check. It was noticeably cold in here. The heater wasn’t working and the (outside) temperatures were terribly low at that time. Within two days they had people working here to fix the heater issue.”
THEATER REMAINS ‘UNFINISHED’
Professor of Theater Michael Buckley said his colleagues and students were in the same leaky boat – and then some. Buckley, the chief liaison with builders during construction of the PAC, said the celebrated new building has at least 40 serious issues that remain unresolved.
Leaks in the skylight roof above the tool shop are a terrible problem, Buckley said. It was also a situation he and his colleagues saw coming long before the winter rains began.
“I was told when the building was first built, ‘Yeah, this will have water standing on top of the skylights, but don’t worry. They’ll be watertight,’” Buckley said. “I thought, Really? That doesn’t sound right.”
Theater Operations Technician Brandon Watterson spotted the leaks after a storm and Buckley reported them through an online Service Now request. Facilities personnel fixed it, he said.
Then the real trouble began.
A hazardous leak in the theater’s control room packed with expensive technology and electronics threatened a fortune in damages and shutdown of the PAC.
“We had all the roof tiles out at one point,” he said. “We also had to put plastic sheeting over our stuff because this is worth tens of thousands of dollars and we can’t have water dripping on it. They put in new ducts and replaced the ceiling, so it was all taken care of by the contractors.”
Many serious defects remain unaddressed, Buckley said.
“Bottom line, the building is not finished, even though we’ve been teaching here for three semesters now,” he said. “There’s a whole laundry list — nearly 40 items long — of things that have not been finished and have never been completed. At one point the contractor and proposition team, they all got in their cars and said, ‘If you have any problems give us a call.’ However, whenever we call, we have a very difficult time getting any action. The only times we really have been able to get some action are when we have administration involved. Our requests fall on deaf ears.”
BALKY DISABILITY DOORS
Buckley said the theater may not be safe for people who use wheelchairs. Difficulties with the blue disability door button have left some disabled guests in a lurch, he said, because they were not able to open the very heavy front doors of the PAC. Problems with the front doors could endanger disabled students and patrons in the event of an emergency evacuation, Buckley said. Facilities personnel have not responded to his concerns, he said, nor have contractors.
PAC has also suffered from balmy and frigid temperatures, Buckley said, due to an uncontrollable HVAC system.
“The HVAC system has still not been fine tuned to the point where we have comfortable temperatures in every room,” Buckley said. “We had dance classes up in our (second story) dance studios with 85-degree heat, just sweltering. We did a show last semester called The Frankenstein Project and audience members were bundled up (in winter jackets and blankets) because we still can’t get the temperature right.”
These issues take a physical and emotional toll, Buckley said. He was promised control over the temperatures of the building by campus leaders and architects, he said, but has never had it. Instead, he said, he is continuously told college facilities staff and contractors “are working on it.”
“It’s difficult when you know that your students are freezing,” Buckley said. “They are sitting there, bundled up, and you’re trying to keep moving to keep warm. It was the opposite problem when we first opened in 2021. It felt like there was no air moving at all and it was difficult trying to speak loudly through a mask. Not having control over the temperature is frustrating and it is difficult for your students to focus when their classroom is too hot or too cold.”
Buckley said he is trying to maintain his sense of humor and perspective. He said he realizes college employees working in less opulent surroundings may not want to hear theater faculty “complaining about the Maserati.”
“This is without a doubt a lovely, wonderful building,” he said. “It’s just the little things that (cause problems). Why can’t we just finish the building? I can point to things in the shop that are still not finished and tools that are not hooked up correctly. They haven’t really buttoned it up and put the finishing touches on the building.”
A highly-regarded professional theatrical designer known throughout Southern California, Buckley has worked in scores of elite performance spaces, including the campuses of the San Diego Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, SD REP, San Diego Opera and many universities. He is part of the “User Group,” a select committee that met with the architects during the building of the PAC. The UCLA-educated artist was an essential part of the design and building of the PAC, but now feels marginalized, he said.
“It is discouraging to me that my voice isn’t being heard when reporting about things that haven’t been finished,” he said. “I’m not just some student or whiny faculty member who came in and said ‘I don’t like this.’ Why do I need a dean or vice president to say the HVAC needs to be fixed? Why can’t my voice as a member of the User Group be respected?”
ADMINISTRATORS DRIVE THE PROCESS
College administrators and Facilities personnel declined requests for comment. Public Information Officer Lillian Leopold acknowledged the frustrations of employees working in hot, cold and damp buildings. Contractual warranties on new buildings dictate the kind of response faculty and staff may receive, she said. Certain infrastructure defects are covered by the warranty, she said, others are not.
“Two of the instances were covered under warranty — the Performing Arts and the IT,” Leopold said. “The HVAC issue with the Police Department was not, so the district had to fix it from the back end. Our partners and contractors help us find the solutions for whatever issues we have under warranty as well as whatever else isn’t covered.”
Leopold said enforcing warranties is a district responsibility that has to involve management.
“With warranties it is not for a particular user or individual faculty member (to directly engage contractors),” she said. “(That is the role of) the district because only (it) can enforce warranties. The district has the contract with the individual contractors. It is best if the user just deals with our Facilities people.”
Leopold said the HVAC systems in the three new buildings are being reevaluated.
“I don’t really have control over the temperature in my office either, but I can tell you that there is a contract to bring in a company that’s going to work on the HVAC system,” she said.
SC’s Facilities team is undersized, Leopold said, but doing its best to handle problems as they arise.
“We have a very small Facilities, Operations and Maintenance Department,” she said. “They are taking care of all of the square footage that exists for the old buildings on all of our campuses (and) are the overseers for the new construction. They are a small, but mighty team. When something comes to them, they prioritize it in accordance to matters of safety and damage to property.”
Buckley said less rainy, more temperate weather in May ought to help keep electronics dry and students from coming to class wrapped in blankets, but multiple issues linger.
The Maserati remains in the shop.
