An Eroding Foundation

East Carolina University plans to renovate parts of Mendenhall Student Center, but according to multiple university records, the building is in poor condition, needs major renovations and does have several safety issues.

According to multiple university records, which are publicly available, documents obtained from the state of North Carolina through a public records request and information provided to The East Carolinian by ECU’s administration, the 44-year-old building has numerous structural and safety issues.

These records indicate Mendenhall Student Center has had fire code issues for several years, contains asbestos and has a long list of maintenance which has been put off.

Fire Code

Bill Bagnell, associate vice chancellor for campus operations, told The East Carolinian in a 2017 interview there were certain parts of the building which weren’t up to fire code.

“There's a lot of deferred maintenance that needs to be taken care of,” Bagnell said. “Old aged building utility systems, fire code corrections, some fire sprinkling that needs to be done.”

According to a document titled Utilities Mendenhall Deferred Maintenance Priorities (UMDMP) report, Mendenhall currently does not have a fire sprinkler system and its fire alarm system is “obsolete.”

However, Brian Taylor, chief state fire marshal of the North Carolina Office of State Fire Marshal (NCOSFM), said the fire alarm being obsolete means the system is outdated and needs to be updated.

According to a 2018 NCOSFM inspection, obtained through a public records request, state inspectors recommended ECU install a fire sprinkler system, an updated fire alarm system and identified a fire code issue inside Hendrix Theater. Specifically, inspectors observed that the rear exit of Hendrix was consistently blocked with prop stage equipment and other items, which is against fire code, according to the report.

Taylor said there is not a requirement to fix all of these code violations immediately unless they are life safety issues.

Taylor said NCOSFM considered life safety standards to be locked or blocked exits or fire protection systems such as sprinkler systems or fire alarm systems not working. Taylor said those problems could pose immediate danger to people in a building.

“Well, we hope that they are addressed immediately, like I said, life safety issues have to be addressed,” Taylor said. “We don’t have a fine system set in place but if it's not safe, they cannot occupy the facilities is basically that’s how we would handle the issue.”

Bagnell said in an email sent on Monday that Mendenhall had “no code violations that demand immediate attention.”

“There are a number of items that have been on the list for several years that indicate a need to upgrade and replace. These items met code at the time the building was constructed,” Bagnell said. “Over time, the codes have changed and some items no longer meet the current code. There is no immediate requirement to make these changes, but under our building renovation project, these will be addressed.”

However, Erik Kneubuehl, associate vice chancellor of Student Involvement and Leadership said he was unaware of any fire codes being broken. He added all of Mendenhall's codes were always fixed immediately.

“I don’t know of any fire codes that we were not in compliance with, because when we find out that we are not in compliance with something, we are usually told in the same email, you need to fix it and we go out and fix it,” Kneubuehl said. “We’ve not, not passed inspection every time. We have inspection reports going back 20 years, where we passed inspections, so if there was something off there, I’m not aware of it.”

ECU’s first priority is life safety fixes, according to meeting minutes taken from a Feb. 28 meeting between ECU and Davis Kane Architects, the architecture firm which is working with ECU on its deferred maintenance plan for Mendenhall. The meeting minutes state Mendenhall must meet code requirements for egress, fire ratings, fire alarm and fire suppression systems.

Mendenhall is slated to have a fire suppression system installed at some point in the future, according to the Feb. 28 meeting minutes. The meeting minutes also specified the fire alarm is not addressable and will need to be replaced throughout the building, except for the catering kitchen where it is being installed by October of 2018.

Asbestos

Another potential hazard within Mendenhall is asbestos, according to ECU’s Office of Environmental Health and Campus Safety.

Located on the ECU Office of Environmental Health and Safety webpage, Mendenhall is “presumed” to have asbestos in locations which the university considers “other.”

Bagnell said “presumed” is directly from the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard. He said employers and building owners are required to treat installed thermal system insulation (TSI) and sprayed-on or troweled-on surfacing materials as asbestos-containing material (ACM) in buildings constructed before 1980.

According to Bagnell, these materials are designated "presumed ACM". Asphalt and vinyl flooring material installed before 1980 also must be treated as asbestos-containing (Mendenhall opened in 1974). Bagnell added employers must assume these materials contain asbestos unless they are tested by an accredited laboratory.

“So, if we have not tested material in building constructed in 1980 or earlier, then the suspect material is presumed to be asbestos-containing,” Bagnell said.

Bagnell said, in an emailed response sent Tuesday evening, Mendenhall was originally constructed in 1970 and was built to meet the code requirements at that time.

“Buildings, not just those at ECU- constructed prior to 1980 are presumed to contain some asbestos materials,” Bagnell said. “We have had Mendenhall surveyed for asbestos and found some 12x12 tiles and some mastic on insulation pipe in mechanical spaces in the 1970’s construction.”

During the catering kitchen project, ECU abated some floor tiles containing asbestos, Bagnell said. The asbestos took two days to remove by an accredited asbestos abatement contractor.

Asbestos abatement is the process of controlling the release of asbestos-containing materials by removing them entirely through encasement, encapsulation, or repair, according to the asbestos abatement website.

Bagnell said the removal of the remaining asbestos was identified in the survey and will then be abated sometime in the future of the building renovation project.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, asbestos has been used in a wide range of manufactured goods, but mostly in building materials (roofing shingles, ceiling and floor tiles, paper products and asbestos cement products).

According to the EPA, asbestos fibers could be released into the air by the disturbance of asbestos-containing material during product use, demolition work, building or home maintenance, repair and remodeling.

If exposed to asbestos over a long period of time, cancer can develop, according to the EPA. Because of the health risks, the EPA advises asbestos be carefully removed.

Bagnell said any asbestos identified during an inspection while planning renovations will be “abated” as part of the renovation work.

Deferred Maintenance

According to the Feb. 28 meeting minutes, Mendenhall has a number of maintenance projects which have been put off. Some of these deferred maintenance include HVAC work, plumbing, life safety, electrical, ITCS, steam and other renovations which need to be made to the building, all according to the meeting minutes.

Bagnell said the Facilities Condition Assessments, performed by the North Carolina State Construction Office in 2015, identified more $650 million in deferred maintenance needs for the state funded buildings on the campus.

However, specific to Mendenhall is a list of several electrical issues such as replacing existing service switchgear along with updating certain HVAC parts which were installed before 1990, according to the Utilities Mendenhall Deferred Maintenance Priorities report, which was attached to the February meeting minutes.

Within the Feb. 28 meeting minutes are a list of deferred maintenance projects within Mendenhall, which have accumulated over time and include a total project budget of $18 million for renovations, though ECU stated in the meeting minutes there is not enough money to meet every request.

In September of 2010, the ISES Corporation, which performs building assessments, performed a facility condition analysis of almost all ECU buildings. One building in particular which was found to be deficient was Mendenhall.

Mendenhall was found among the reports with a Facilities Condition Needs Index (FCNI) rating of 0.36, putting the building into a range which is labeled in the executive summary as “below average condition” and required a “major renovation”.

Future of Mendenhall

Kneubuehl said, as of now, the only work being done on Mendenhall is renovating Destination 360. The project, according to Kneubuehl, will turn D360 into a full service catering kitchen to serve the entire university, and specifically, the new student center.

“The only thing being renovated right now is the catering kitchen,” Kneubuehl said. “That’s the only thing being done in the next year, year in a half as on any kind of list that I know of.”

Kneubuehl said in the next few years ECU will have to do other renovations throughout the building. He added ECU is working with contractors now to get bids for the future renovations.

“Other than individual updates that we always do for pipes needing to be replaced and that kind of stuff, there's no giant plumbing renovations that’s planned to be done before we move out,” Kneubuehl said.

According to Kneubuehl, at some point in the next couple of years Mendenhall will have to go through renovations to bring it up to code for HVAC and “other stuff like that.” He said when that happens, there's going to be a plan of temporarily moving offices throughout the retired student center.

Bagnell said the short term plan for Mendenhall includes a comprehensive deferred maintenance project which is planned for Mendenhall after the new student center is opened.

“Deferred maintenance are those building systems, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, life safety, and architectural building elements that have aged beyond their useful life and need to be replaced or modernized,” Bagnell said. “Until construction begins, the building will have limited uses related to the catering kitchen, radio station, Hendrix theatre, the bowling alley, and some other limited meeting spaces. Once construction begins, most of these activities will cease as much as possible, with the exception of the catering kitchen and the radio station.”

Bagnell said the long term plan is to use the building for administrative and academic meeting and office spaces, catering kitchen functions, the radio station and bowling alley.

According to Bagnell, ECU does plan to address the deferred maintenance items, fire alarm, sprinkler system, life safety systems and architectural elements under the building renovation project, which will be renovated and brought up to current codes and standards.