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Removal of the plaster pieces eliminates the risk that material might fall on the heads of tourists below.
“Now that the inspection has been done, we feel confident in the safety and integrity of all of these columns. We plan to reopen the Rotunda,” spokesman Jim Erskine of the Department of General Administration said Friday night.
The popular area for tourists will reopen as soon as this morning. It had been roped off since July 19. That is when pieces of leaf decoration were discovered on a seventh-floor balcony after apparently falling from one of 32 steel-and-plaster columns one floor above.
GA hired the consulting firm Architectural Resources Group to inspect all of the columns after a football-size piece of ornamental plaster fell. The largest piece weighed about a pound and had broken off and shattered on impact.
Had that plaster piece kept dropping, it would have landed 150 feet below on the Rotunda floor, where the public frequently walks, Erskine said.
The inspection work was done by David Wessel, a senior conservator, and Maya Foty, a conservator, both with San Francisco-based ARG, which has a Portland office.
Scaffolding went up earlier in the week on the eighth floor balcony, which runs around the 32 columns or colonnade high up inside the ornate Rotunda.
No cost estimate for the plaster repairs is available, but the preparation and inspection work is costing about $19,000.
Brad Shannon: 360-753-1688 bshannon@theolympian.com www.theolympian.com/politicsblog
