Two weeks of construction on Soldiers Arch concluded late last week after an $80,000 restoration of the campus landmark.
Soldiers Arch, which was dedicated in 1921 as a memorial to the 42 Brown alums and faculty who died in World War I, had seen excessive deterioration on its right side recently, said Stephen Maiorisi, vice president of Facilities Management.
"Concrete tiles engraved with the names of the deceased individuals had been falling off of the arch due to weathering," Maiorisi said.
The project had been in the early planning stages since May, with construction starting earlier this month.
"The bottom portion of (the arch) had deteriorated to the point where you couldn't see the names," said Michael Guglielmo, assistant director of project management who oversaw the Soldiers Arch restoration.
Only the right side of the arch was repaired in the project, but Guglielmo expects that the left side will eventually require similar restoration if deterioration occurs again.
"One side could deteriorate a lot faster, depending on the stone," Guglielmo said. "You can't control how nature responds to these stones or how they react to weather."
This was the second time within the last year that Soldier's Arch has required restoration. In November 2008, Facilities Management restored masonry and cleaned the arch. The project redirected masonry joints connecting the stones and repaired and reset stones as needed.
