Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-11
Still Another Blunder at the New
City Post Office.
ENTIRELY new &YIIGHT NEEDED
Experts Say It is impossible to
Patch It Up.
DELAY AND MONEY LOSS

The immense copper skylight on the new
post office building, which is the GOVERNS
of the central court has been condemned
by three prominent persons in this city
who are engaged in that branch of Industry
and 1t Is stated that no course remains tc
be pursued but for the government to have
the roof removed and new one built. The
cost for this is variously estimated at from
10000 to $4,000.
Apart from this waste of the public mon.
ey. delay of probably six months in the
completion Of the building will result, and
it is stated by high authority that many OF
the workmen now employed there will be
temporarily thrown out of employment.
1t is stated that soon after Mr.. r. C.
Steward, the present superintendent of cen
struction Of the new post office, entered
upon his duties, he found that the skylight
which had been accepted and paid for dur
ing the administration of his predecessor
vas leaking badly, and he reported this
state of affairs to the Office Of the super
vising architect Of the Treasury Depart
ment.
An examination Of the roof followed, and
1t was determined by the department to see
IL the roof could not be so patched up as 10
n axe 1t watertight and answer the pur-
poses for which it had originally been erect
ed The specifications for the repairs, as
drawn at the department, required that the
work should be completed in a satisfac-
tory manner"
Several Washington builders were invited
to bid on the work by Mr.. Steward, but all
declined, because, as it was declared by
them, 1t would be impossible to make
the roof water-tight; that the only thing to
hf 6nS,a ho tn nj
light and put on new one.
Among those requested to examine the
roof and bid upon its repair was Mr.. o. L.
Wolfstner, who today said to Star re-
porter:
1T is true our firm was requested to bid
on the work to repair the new outer main
skyliSht over the inner court of the new
post office, but We were compeaied to admit
to Mr. Steward that We could not do SO;
that we could not sign a contract to satis-
factorily complete the work.
THE original drawings were altered and
substitute, which today ascertained was
patented, put in its place, which will cost
the government thousands Of dollars, as
am inclined to believe that the entire cop
per skylight will have to be removed and
replaced by one shat WIN be and will re-
main wat1r-tight.
1.-THE bars and cross-gutters that are
supposed to take up the leakage are about
large enough for skylight 10 by 10 feet,
whereas the bars in the post office skyHght
have to drain length of 81 feet, and
ought to be planned accordingly.i The Or
iginal contract calls for the roof to be
water tight; and putty, which has been
used in the post Office roof, will never keep
a skylight water-tight for1 any length of
time, while the cementing may have to be
done every week. -
II would suggest that the government
hire several men to do puttying and give
them q steady job until Congress appro-
PIRATES additional money to tear the roof
all off and make a modern metallic skyllght
that will remain water-tight. The govern
ment has made another blunder, which will
cause great delay
Il would suggest that commission OF
skylight experts be appointed at once; men
who have no interest in contract them
selves and capable of erecting water-tght
skylights, to look after this important mat
ter and protect the governments interests.
An unfortunate thing connected with this
skylight business Is that the same sort of
an affair has been put on the new post Of
fee building in Buffalo,
The Supervising Architects Views.
Supervising Architect Taylor said this af-
ternoon that the matter would doubtless be
thoroughly Investigated. =
Mr.. Taylor believes that a mistake was
made in putting such big skylight>on the
top of the building. The enormous area of
glass and iron is subject to expansion dur
ing the hot summer weather. He thinks
the leaks are due to this as much as to
anything else