Harkness Tower construction pushed back another year

LIZ OLINER/YH A-PEALING: Postponing the Harkness renovations will allow the Carillon to ring next year.

As of Tues., Apr. 20, the Guild of Carillonneurs' advertisement for their "goodbye recital before the Branford renovations" no longer holds true. That's because Yale decided on Tuesday to postpone renovating Harkness Tower, where the Guild plays the bells, for one year.

On Tuesday, Guild co-chair Elena Sax-onhouse, SY '99, received an e-mail from Charles Ebner, the facilities project manager for the Branford renovations. According to the e-mail, "The major project which would have renovated Harkness Tower entirely, starting in the summer of 1999 and finishing in the summer of 2000, has been postponed by Facilities Management. Major construction is now planned to commence in the summer of 2000 and finish in the summer of 2001, pending the same approvals."

"This decision was very last-minute," Guild co-chair Rena Okino, TD '00, said. "It's frustrating. Last semester we were told we wouldn't have access to the tower, and so we made a lot of plans to get a practice carillon. Now everything has changed."

According to Ebner, the guild will now be able to access the tower while active construction takes place in the rest of Branford. Since Guild players will be surrounded by construction, they may have to sign liability releases, Ebner said. "Barclay White Inc., the construction manager for the project, is discussing this with their attorneys."

While the members of the Guild are annoyed that they didn't learn of the postponement earlier, for the most part they're happy to have access to the bells for another year. "It's just been tough to plan things for next year because everything has been up in the air," treasurer Roy Lee, SM '00, said. "By now we've accepted that we wouldn't be able to play in the tower. But I'm certainly not complaining that now we'll have access to the bells for another year. I understand that this is a big renovation project, but I want to minimize the effect it has on the Guild."

Saxonhouse agreed with Lee's concerns. "It would have been really bad for the Guild if it couldn't play for over a year. We'd never get recruits," she said. "I guess earlier we made a whole big ordeal about not being able to play in Harkness next year. This week's announcement was unexpected. But now, we'll have our big concert on Saturday and we'll be sure to announce that we'll be playing next year too."

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