Huntsville, Not Marble Falls

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The one thing city officials here don’t want to see happen – again – is marble taking a fall at City Hall.
The Huntsville Times reported in late July that the city will have Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates of Northbrook, Ill., an architectural and engineering firm, inspect the marble that clads Huntsville’s main municipal building.
Some of the cladding’s seams appear worn, and Huntsville city officials aren’t taking any chances, given the building’s history.
The Times noted that the marble-slab siding began to fall off in 1991, four years after installation as part of a renovation of the 1960s-era building. The city had the sealant failure repaired at the time, but some of the cladding isn’t holding up well today; some seals between the panels are either missing or brittle.
Huntsville’s city council hired Wiss, Janney with a $30,000 inspection contract in June.