Editor’s Note: This is the first in a three-part series detailing concerns surrounding the Studio Arts Building.
There is a thin line between having vintage charm and being a dump. University art students believe the Studio Arts Building crossed that line long before the ceiling of the ceramics studio fell in November 2013. It’s a tough old building that has withstood 90 years of wear and tear, but students wonder — and worry — just how much more they and the Studio Arts Building can take.
The building has been slated for renovation for years, but the state Legislature has not yet approved funding. Blueprints that took a year to draw will sit on the shelf until the University receives the $15 million needed for renovation, said Roger Husser, Facility Services director of planning, design and construction.
Students are organizing protests that they hope will persuade legislators to allocate the funds. Until then, they will craft sculptures and sketch drawings beneath leaky ceilings, on top of uneven wood brick floors and surrounded by walls coated in lead paint and, in some places, mold.
When the ceramics studio ceiling crashed into a large sink that just about every student in the building uses, people around campus started paying attention to the building’s long list of issues. Problems with the building, which was constructed in 1924, date back much further and are not limited to that one studio.
One of students’ biggest concerns is lead paint and asbestos they have identified throughout the building using home test kits. However, Dave Maharrey, associate executive director of Facility Services, said lead and asbestos in the Studio Arts Building are safe because they are properly maintained.
Another major issue is water. Ellen Farrar, painting and drawing senior, said sinks often back up and open drains in the floor overflow. Painting and drawing junior Stephanie Binning said her husband once had to unstop a sink in the building.
The basement of the building floods when it rains. Not only does water enter around a door that leads outside, when there is a lot of rain, studios in the basement can flood as well. Binning said this could easily destroy students’ work.
There is exposed wiring throughout the building, some of which is near students’ lockers in the main hallway. When the ceiling leaks — which it often does in many places — students fear the mix of electricity and water and avoid going to their lockers.
Restrooms are not cleaned regularly and rat feces often appear throughout the building, Farrar said.
“I haven’t seen Facility Services in here until the ceiling collapsed,” she said. “Once we started the protest stuff, then we started seeing them here and there. … We’re only starting to get attention now that we’re speaking out about it.”
Work orders from the past six months show that Facility Services has addressed several issues including repairing the ceramics ceiling after it fell and fixing a damaged steam pipe. They have also visited the building for routine tasks such as changing lightbulbs and adjusting the temperature.
Maharrey said although the building is not new or modern, his office and the state fire marshal’s office deem it safe to occupy. If anyone notices a problem, he said they should report it to the Facility Services staff so they can fix it and ensure people’s safety.
Besides potential health risks, the building itself is not secure, Farrar said. At various times, the Studio Arts Building has been home to squirrels, rats, a raccoon and during summer 2013, a homeless man, she said.
“The shabbiness draws random people to it,” Farrar said.
Farrar said suspicious-looking people sometimes look into windows at nighttime when students are working late on assignments. That is worrisome, she said, because one of the windows in the painting studio does not lock.
Farrar also said a backpack and laptop were recently stolen by a non-student during a class in the foundry, where students work with metal. Last year on a football gameday, someone entered the building and stole several blank canvases from the painting area.
Capt. Cory Lalonde, LSU Police Department spokesman, said there have been four reports of suspicious persons since January in the Studio Arts Building area. Throughout campus, there have been 50 to 60 such reports since January.
If several incidents occur in a short period of time in an area of campus, police will patrol that area. Lalonde said there currently is no concerted effort to patrol near the Studio Arts Building, but people should still report anything or anyone that seems out of place.
Despite all its problems, Binning said the building is gorgeous at its heart. Original wavy glass windows let in sunlight that floods rooms all the way up to their high ceilings.
It is also brimming with the kind of quirkiness that only art students could come up with. There is a couch mounted to the ceiling that was part of a former student’s project. Someone drew the outline of a house around a hole in a wall where a rat that students named Leroy once lived.
But no matter how charming it is, Farrar believes the environment is simply unhealthy and unfair.
“Our building and our majors even are considered less important,” she said. “They’re not STEM majors, so basically, we’re not the big money makers that LSU or the state wants, so we’re less important and somehow deserve these conditions. We pay the same tuition, but somehow we get the worst conditions on campus. … It’s in an emergency state.”
“We pay the same tuition, but somehow we get the worst conditions on campus.”
This is the first in a three-part series about concerns surrounding the Studio Arts Building.