Problems leaving new UNLV library in the dark

Jeffrey Libby

Friday, Oct. 20, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

From a top-floor study area in the 5 1/2-story, $55 million Lied Library, construction workers get a spectacular view of the Strip after sundown. But to refer to their punch list, they need a flashlight.

Industry standards call for a minimum of 25-foot candle power in study areas. But in four of five floors at the UNLV library scheduled to open in less than three months, the available light at night hovers as low as 1-foot candle power. And at most desks, flush with ambient light during the day, there are no outlets.

"First of all, we have to have a source to plug in all those lamps. And the lamps are very expensive. They're not in the budget," said Juanita Fain, vice president of administration. But the good news is that Pat Batte, manager of the state public works board, wants to address the lighting issue, she said. "The question is how, not if."

The bad news is that Batte's last day with public works is today. He's going to work for the public works department of the city of Las Vegas.

"When it gets down to it, we're a finger-pointing type of society," Batte said. "And there have been a lot of fingers pointing at me. But I've always been a friend of the university. I'm leaving them with a very large CIP (capital improvement program). It's an opportunity for me to get a fresh start."

University officials have no such luxury. They have to see the project through to its completion. And to their credit, they have maintained Fain's can-do attitude through several engineering problems and cost hikes, which have delayed the library's opening by a year and contributed to $7 million in cost overruns. The project was first billed at $48 million in 1997.

Officials confidently insist that the inadequate lighting will be corrected in time for the scheduled Jan. 8 opening.

"It's like commissioning a ship, the building is so sophisticated," Tom Flagg, UNLV public affairs director, said.

Patrons will be able to take home books that have been retrieved by a robotic crane and self-checked out through a computerized scanning system.

The 301,000 square-foot building is the largest under one roof ever built by the state, Batte said.

"Everything has to be working when the library opens because if it doesn't, it would be a complete nightmare," Flagg said.

But two months after a nighttime walk-through revealed the lighting problem, no plan of action has been devised and a meeting has yet to be scheduled to bring together the architects, engineers and designers involved.

Meanwhile, at least half of the study areas in question remain without immediately available power outlets. And where study nooks are farther than 10 feet from electrical outlets, carpet may have to be pulled up and trenches cut into the cement slab floor before power can be installed. The trenches would then have to be repoured.

In most other buildings, the most cost-effective solution would be to drop in lighting from the ceiling, but that probably will not be feasible at Lied, said Don Puls, the vice president of field operations for Tibesar Construction, the general contractor for the project.

In some cases, the ceiling floats 150 feet above the library floor. And along the north side of the building, ceilings vault upwards of 30 feet above book stacks, anchoring windows 25 feet high.

Puls declined to estimate the potential cost of additional lighting fixtures that would match the cherry and maple furniture already installed in the library.

"I don't even know what will be involved in getting the power to them," he said.

University officials have not contacted him to request any estimates on the scope of the required work, he said.

Kenneth Marks, dean of the libraries, said Thursday that he is also in the dark. "I'm not privy to what the conclusions have been," he said.

In the original plans, the building was intended only for ambient lighting, Batte said. Puls agrees, saying that everything that was specified in the building plans, including electrical wiring, has been installed.

"It's just a matter of purchasing lamps," Batte said. "What we need to do is to get the interior designers to procure some of those lamps."

Of the $55 million price tag for Lied, $11 million has been set aside for furnishings, and lighting was part of that budget, Batte said. Fain does not necessarily agree with that perspective, she said.

Jane Fielden, president of Fielden and Partners, the design firm handling interior decorating at the library, said she has found some lamps that may work. But the final decision can't be made until she confers with architects and lighting and electrical engineers.

"Everyone is bringing ideas to the table," she said. Those ideas will be discussed at a meeting scheduled for next week, she said.

In the meantime, expectations for the new library continue to brighten over at the rambling James R. Dickinson Library. That building's architectural style, the result of expansions completed in the late 1960s, conjures comparisons to the Yellow Submarine.

"When people walk in, they are going to stop and gawk," Marks said. "Lied Library will be the destination of last resort. When you cannot find information anywhere else, Lied Library will be the place to go."