Plan advances for Bartle Hall Sky Stations repair

The Kansas City Council is expected to sign off Thursday on an elaborate repair plan for the Bartle Hall Sky Stations sculpture that was damaged by lightning.

The council’s Finance Committee on Wednesday agreed to a $1.3 million contract for the repairs, and the full council votes Thursday.

The city’s insurance is expected to reimburse all of that cost except the $150,000 deductible, city architect Eric Bosch told the committee.

Workers first noticed the damage last fall when they were putting blue light bulbs onto the sculptures to celebrate the Royals’ championship.

They realized that the biggest and most dramatic of the aluminum sculptures — known to many as the “hair curlers” — had been cracked by a lightning strike. Water had also somehow gotten into the middle of that easternmost sculpture, causing further damage.

Removal will be a logistical challenge. The sculpture is 40 feet tall and its two sections weigh a total of 18,300 pounds.

“It is pretty monstrous,” Bosch said, clarifying that he meant the sculpture’s size, not its appearance. Many critics have lambasted the space age look of the pieces, but they have also become among the most recognizable and appreciated features of Kansas City’s skyline.

The city will have a helicopter remove the sculpture on May 8, weather and wind permitting. It will be reconditioned by A. Zahner Co., which worked on the original installation in 1994. Reinstallation is expected in September.

The piece was designed by New York artist R.M. Fischer. The original $1.2 million cost included the four Sky Stations and other smaller Fischer sculptures throughout the Music Hall and Kansas City Convention Center.

Today those public artworks are appraised at $5 million, Bosch said.

The four Sky Stations have withstood countless other lightning strikes over the years, with just minor rust and paint damage. They have built-in lightning protection, but lightning last fall hit this particular sculpture in an unusual spot, and the water damage exacerbated the problem, Bosch said.

If there’s a way to add extra protections against the weather while the sculpture is down off the pylon, that will happen, he said.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 10:21 AM with the headline "Plan advances for Bartle Hall Sky Stations repair."