Glacial Deposits.indd - Department of Geography - Geology - Illinois ...

CHRISTMAS CATASTROPHE
Christmas 2009 was a white one
for those staying local, but it
produced a campus tragedy. An
artificial stone façade column at
the northeast corner of Hovey Hall
separated from the I‐beam that
actually holds up the roof, and
part of it fell against the building.
Stark Excavating sent a crew out
on 25 December to remove the
leaning section of stone. While
operating an excavator, trying to
remove the fallen column, Stephen
D. White of Bloomington died
when the column slipped and
crushed him in the cab of his
machine. Here, a day later, a crew
was using another excavator to
remove the disabled rig.
On the same day that Stark
removed its damaged excavator,
other employees were strapping
the remaining seven columns in an
attempt to prevent further
separation of stone from steel on
the east side of the Hovey addition
that went up in 1967.
Later in the winter, a crew came
back to chisel the terrazzo‐like
material completely away from
one additional column and replace
the straps with metal plates, some
of which were visible that day.
Those plates and the two bare I‐
beams were still evident in the
summer of 2010.
iv