Glass Pavilion closed until Tuesday
Utility lines were broken during city sewer repairs
8/30/2014The Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art will be closed until Tuesday because its air conditioning stopped working after utility lines were accidentally broken by Toledo city employees repairing an old sewer.
The pavilion has been closed since Wednesday morning when a backhoe driver unwittingly whacked a series of plastic pipes running about 10 feet under Parkwood Avenue and above the deep sewer, said Kelly Garrow, the museum’s director of communications.
The building’s cooling system is in its Woodruff Studios building in its Parkwood parking lot, located there so it can not been seen from the pavilion.
On Wednesday and again on Thursday, the museum expected to reopen the following day. By Friday, however, the museum staff decided to remain closed a few more days to allow the city to finish fixing the sewer and the museum’s contractor to repair museum pipes. The closure also will give the Glass Pavilion’s air and humidity time to be properly conditioned before visitors return.
Museum officials moved 24 objects that are vulnerable to temperature and humidity changes to the main museum building across Monroe Street.
Ms. Garrow said the city’s maps do not indicate that the museum’s cooling pipes run under Parkwood, but at this point, no one knows the reason for that oversight.
As it has in the past, the museum had asked the city to repair the old brick sewer that’s set about two stories under pavement, because Parkwood appeared to be sinking.
Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins apologized to museum staff and promised to make the museum whole. Loss of revenue will be negligible, said Ms. Garrow. For its part, the museum is leaving the pavilion’s doors closed as much as possible, has closed all curtains, and has stopped allowing artists to use the hot shop in which furnaces heat glass, she added.
Contact Tahree Lane at: tlane@theblade.com or 419-724-6075.