A glimpse inside Gilman renovations
News-Letter reporter tours beloved building in midst of construction
To the south, the sun splashes across the Harbor, with the Key Bridge looming in the distance and downtown Baltimore encroaching in the foreground. The Keyser Quad, to the east, is flushed with students emerging from class, crossing in all directions. Beyond the roof of the MSE Library, Union Memorial Hospital's new helipad is equipped with a helicopter perched atop, ready for liftoff.
My brief spiritual moment with Baltimore came to an abrupt end as I heard a loud bang from one floor below, followed by the sound of drilling that I had become accustomed to over the past hour.
I was standing just steps below the Bell Tower in Gilman Hall. This is a view many students have not had the privilege of seeing for the past few months.
Behind me stood my tour guides, Martin Kajic, project manager for the renovation of the historic building, and Eddie Delluomo, superintendent of the site for Bovis Lend Lease. Despite my momentary serenity on the top-floor of Gilman, what lay below was far from serene.
A construction site, I learned, is not that much unlike a warzone.
Observing the site I sensed a meticulously planned and ordered chaos. Men in helmets walking around with an urgent sense of purpose, debris strewn across the floor, floorboards missing, a dusty odor that might be mistaken for gunpowder by the untrained nose and of course the constant crashing, banging and drilling make Gilman nearly unrecognizable from its previous position as the home to the humanities at Hopkins.
The Albert Hutzler Reading Room, the most recognizable of Gilman's rooms, was stripped bare.
With no desks, chairs, couches, lamps, paintings, book stacks or books, the HUT is more beautiful than ever (although much less useful, especially when it comes to napping on a cold December night).
The floor to ceiling columns stand alone, holding up the room's ridiculously high ceiling, while a stray ladder lingers off in the corner. The detailed moldings along the walls and columns bask in the white light that pours through the iconic stained glass windows. Still, the room's flaws are all the more conspicuous, including stains from water damage to plaster in many corners of the room.
My brief spiritual moment with Baltimore came to an abrupt end as I heard a loud bang from one floor below, followed by the sound of drilling that I had become accustomed to over the past hour.
I was standing just steps below the Bell Tower in Gilman Hall. This is a view many students have not had the privilege of seeing for the past few months.
Behind me stood my tour guides, Martin Kajic, project manager for the renovation of the historic building, and Eddie Delluomo, superintendent of the site for Bovis Lend Lease. Despite my momentary serenity on the top-floor of Gilman, what lay below was far from serene.
A construction site, I learned, is not that much unlike a warzone.
Observing the site I sensed a meticulously planned and ordered chaos. Men in helmets walking around with an urgent sense of purpose, debris strewn across the floor, floorboards missing, a dusty odor that might be mistaken for gunpowder by the untrained nose and of course the constant crashing, banging and drilling make Gilman nearly unrecognizable from its previous position as the home to the humanities at Hopkins.
The Albert Hutzler Reading Room, the most recognizable of Gilman's rooms, was stripped bare.
With no desks, chairs, couches, lamps, paintings, book stacks or books, the HUT is more beautiful than ever (although much less useful, especially when it comes to napping on a cold December night).
The floor to ceiling columns stand alone, holding up the room's ridiculously high ceiling, while a stray ladder lingers off in the corner. The detailed moldings along the walls and columns bask in the white light that pours through the iconic stained glass windows. Still, the room's flaws are all the more conspicuous, including stains from water damage to plaster in many corners of the room.
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