Duluth, MinnesotaTower Hall Exterior Restoration
Known as the “heart” of the St. Scholastica Campus, Tower hall is a symmetric arrangement of a Main Portal with two seven-story towers on each side. The towers are designed in Romanesque style of construction. The exterior of the towers consists primarily of locally quarried “blue trap” basalt stone. Original construction began on the South Tower in 1906 with the North Tower and Main Portal completed in 1928.
In 2008 after pieces of the tower had fallen to the plaza below, RSI was commissioned to develop an appropriate repair program for this 90 year old facility. An investigation of the North Tower building envelope was performed to assess the current condition of the façade and roof. Extensive restoration was required to bring the North Tower back to its original grandeur. Repairing several original construction oversights resulted in the final repairs being better than the original without a significant cost increase over the cost of reactive “patchwork” repairs.
The next phase of the project will include the restoration of the South Tower and the Main building’s historic slate roof.
