Between 1993 and 1994, Newcomb Hall officials found floor-to-ceiling cracks in a stairwell leading from the Newcomb Hall Theater to the projection room. While it is uncertain when they initially appeared, Newcomb Hall Director Eddie Daniels now blames the cracks on the construction of the adjacent University parking garage and the subsequent unsettling of the earth.
In 1993, University officials hired the Arlington-based Turner Construction Company to build the parking garage attached to the University Bookstore. Daniels said that in order for the top garage level to be at the store level, the builders had to dig into the hilly area that supported Newcomb Hall and the Bookstore.
Tom Bohrman, a Turner business development assistant marketer, noted that the safety of other buildings is "always an issue" but could not comment on whether the original builders were aware that Newcomb Hall could be affected.
"Just because they built one building next to another doesn't mean they have to take the other one into account," Bohrman said. "They could be situated on different earth."
Daniels said the foundation of Newcomb Hall may not have been prepared to support this unsettling.
"I don't know that when they built Newcomb that they expected a parking lot would go up," he said.
University Architect Pete Anderson, who was not previously aware of the Newcomb Hall cracks, thinks they are confined to one area and not noticeable to the public. Anderson said Newcomb's foundation is secure.
"The fact that there's nothing shown on the outside of the building leaves little [reason] to be concerned," he said.
Daniels said that no other buildings were affected by the garage construction, but the cracks in Newcomb are large enough to raise some concern about the building's stability.
One possibility is that the cracks were present before any further development of surrounding areas. This implies that the foundation of Newcomb was faulty from the start and thus places the building in immediate need of repair.
But Daniels disputed this theory because the discovery of cracks and the construction of the University parking garage occurred concurrently.
"The fact that it was going on at the time and in close proximity to the theater makes it likely that the cracks and the construction were linked," said Donald Riggin, senior project manager in the Facilities Planning and Management department.
"Though it's not common, it's also not unusual when people dig so deep to experience some cracks in the building adjacent to it. If we built a building adjacent to any building on Grounds, we'd experience the same thing," Daniels said.
Although it is not unusual for adjacent buildings to be affected by construction, Riggin said, "It was not expected to happen."
Another possibility is that the slant of the hill that Newcomb Hall sits upon may increase the cracks' rate of growth.
But Daniels refuted this claim as well.
"Charlottesville is very hilly, they build buildings on hills every day. So the hill is not a factor," he said.
The hill also does not appear to be a factor because the cracks have not shown signs of steady separation, he added.
"They're stable. As far as we know, the cracks appear to have stabilized," Daniels said.
Nevertheless, officials continue to monitor the separation with labeled plastic strips panning the cracks. They will be measured periodically but no renovation projects are scheduled now.
"It would have to be a long time before we found out if it was a serious problem," Daniels said. "We'll monitor it over time to see if there is further movement. That's why the cracks have not been repaired."
If it still is possible, after many years, for the earth to shift the building and make the gaps larger, Riggin said the University will take immediate action. They will hire an engineering firm to examine the previous measurements of the gaps and suggest options for repair.
Anderson said he thinks they probably won't be a problem in the future.
"I can't think of any doomsday scenario," he said.
Riggin said he believes the repair will not be more complex than filling the gaps with mortar.
Seeing this as no large concern, Newcomb Hall officials say that students and other Newcomb Hall users should not be worried that the building is steadily falling off the hill.
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