Roof leaks in new UNLV library

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

If the roof leaks on your new $55.3 million library, it's better to find out before the 1.8 million books, tapes and historic documents are brought in.

Such was the case this week when UNLV officials discovered that recent heavy rains resulted in water seeping through holes in the roof of the yet-to-open Lied Library, causing mold to grow on parts of the fifth floor of the five-story structure.

"It was not very extensive and the contractor has agreed to find the leaks, fix them and remove the mold (at no extra cost)," UNLV spokesman Tom Flagg said. "And it will not delay our Jan. 8 opening."

The library was originally projected to open in December 1999, but has been hampered by construction delays.

The project was built in part by a $15 million gift from the Lied Foundation, which also built the downtown Las Vegas Library, its adjacent children's museum and other structures around the Las Vegas Valley.

Flagg said that mold has been found on other campus sites, but it is not known if the mold that formed in the Lied Library's top floor is of the same variety of that which has been found at other campus locations.

"It's better we learned of this (leaks and mold) before (the books arrived), and have an opportunity to take care of it," Flagg said. "However, the areas affected were not where books would have been kept."

The Lied Library at one point was the most expensive project ever awarded by the Nevada Public Works Board, which turned the structure over to the university last August, Flagg said. (The recently built $100 million prison on Cold Greek Road 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas broke that cost record).

The $43 million 301,000-square-foot library is expected to start receiving books and other materials in mid-December from the old Dickinson Library, which school officials say is too small for the growing enrollment at UNLV.

After the Dickinson Library's contents are moved to the new library, the Dickinson building will be converted into the home of the UNLV law school, which currently is housed in the former Paradise Elementary School at Tropicana Avenue and Swenson Street.

The Lied Library, which cost $10 million to outfit, also will feature 5,000 Internet connections for portable computers and a $1.5 million automatic retrieval system that will use robotics to pick up publications anywhere in the library.

In addition to the $15 million Lied gift, The 1997 Legislature allocated $32.8 million for the new library building, and added $7.5 million for furnishings in 1999, Flagg said.