Museum’s Water Woes Remain After Skies Clear
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LAGUNA BEACH — The Laguna Art Museum is having water problems again, and though the artworks aren’t in any danger, the smell of mildew has filled the air.
Water has been seeping through the floor of a basement gallery, soaking the carpet and creating the smell, according to museum director Charles Desmarais. Still undetermined is whether the seepage is coming from pipes or from ground saturated by the recent torrential rains.
In any case, the smelly carpet will be removed in the next day or two and the gallery’s original concrete floor may be refinished and left exposed, Desmarais said.
“It would be great if we can restore the concrete floor,” he added, “because it (was scored) with the names of early museum contributors,” such as artist William Wendt.
Desmarais said that visitors haven’t complained about the smell but that some have groused about the noise caused by vacuuming excess water.
In 1990, the museum closed for a day after 18 inches of water from an underground spring were discovered in an elevator shaft. Museum officials said that problem probably was caused by a broken sump pump. No damage was reported.
The museum was built in 1929, and “anyone with a building as old as ours is going to have problems,” Desmarais noted.
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