News Release

Burns Tower to Be Repainted for First Time in 45 Years

(May 18, 2009) -

Contractors hired by University of the Pacific today will start prepping Burns Tower for a facelift. Scaffolding and liquid collection basins will be installed around the tower as part of a large-scale effort to clean and then repaint the tower. It will be the first time the tower will be repainted since it opened in 1964.

It will take work crews about six weeks to paint the 12-story-tall structure.

"This is a massive project that will require a lot of coordination between our building maintenance employees, the painting contractors and the employees who will be working in the tower during the summer," said Scott Heaton, director of support services. "By the time this project is done, we estimate it will have taken more than 1,100 labor-hours and used 180 gallons of white paint."

Today crews began putting up scaffolding and safety systems for workers, as well as a system to collect water and paint runoff so as to not contaminate the soil around the tower. That will take several days to complete. That will be followed by a scrubbing of the entire tower to clean it before it can be painted. It's estimated the cleaning process could take 10 days. After that, crews will apply a coat of a masonry surface conditioner followed by a coat of acrylic white paint. It will take two to three weeks to complete the final phase of the project.

This will be the first time the tower will be painted since it was opened on March 8, 1964. The project is expected to be completed by the end of June.

The tower, which for at least three decades was the tallest structure in Stockton, rises 242 1/2 feet from the ground, though it is officially 256 1/2feet tall, as 14 feet of the tower are below grade. It was built using six million pounds of concrete and 200,000 pounds of reinforced steel. The first eight floors are offices, the ninth floor has a room for a radio transmitter as well as a storage area and the last three floors house a 150,000 gallon water tank. The tank has not been used since 2002.

Besides the water tank and offices, the tower also houses a Carillon made up of 122 miniature bell units of bronze bell metal, including 61 Flemish bells and 61 harp bells. The Carillon can be played by a keyboard located in the tower lobby but normally is played on most days using an automated system. They are programmed to be played at 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. each day. The top of the tower also has 24 stained-glass windows.

Last year, the tower was the focus of Northern California's press corps after high winds that were clocked at 45 miles-per-hour blew out a 6 ½-foot wide, 20-foot-tall stained glass window on the west side of the tower. No one was injured in the May 22 accident, but the tower had to be temporarily closed while work crews secured the rest of the windows. A new window that was modeled to replicate the missing pane was placed in the tower during the fall semester of 2008.

The Tower was named by the Board of Regents in honor of Robert Burns, the first alumnus to serve as president of the University, in recognition of his long service and great influence on its progress. Burns served as president for 25 years and spent his entire career at the University. He first became associated with Pacific as a student in 1927.

For more information about the history of the tower, visit http://web.pacific.edu/x1379.xml.