RAZING THE ROOFS

Rubber coverings being replaced on 2 buildings

SItNULURT » Construction at the Fitchburg Art Museum will continue through the rest of the week, and when they are done, two facility buildings will have a new roof.

“It was time to replace them,” Museum Director Nick Capasso said. “We were doing some work up on the roof this past summer and the contractors noticed the rubber roofs on both buildings had reached the ends of their lifespan and were starting to decay.”

Work on the roofs began at the beginning of September, and Capasso said the project will likely be finished by the end of the week.

The Fitchburg Art Museum has four buildings, each constructed at different times. Two of those buildings, the Simonds and the Nester Building, have flat roof areas in need of repair.

In the late 1980s, the museum expanded from 10,000square-feet to 40,000-squarefeet with the renovation of the Nester Building and construction of the Simonds Building.

The Nester Building was first built in 1923.

The project, Capasso said, will help the museum address a number of issues on both buildings, stop further deterioration, and help in increasing overall building energy efficiency.

“By replacing these rubber roof segments, we’ll be able to retain both heat and air conditioning in the buildings,” he said. “It’ll certainly save us money in the long run.”

The roughly $100,000 project was paid for by the museum, which is largely supported financially by its membership

program.

Capasso said projects like this are made possible by those FAM members and thanked them for the contribution.

“It’s a way for people to support the museum and to belong here as a member,” he said. “We’re really grateful.”

While the Fitchburg Art Museum doesn’t anticipate any

significant capital improvement projects in the near future, Capasso said he is eyeing the facility’s HVAC system.

“One of our major challenges over the next few years is that we’re going to have to replace or seriously upgrade our HVAC systems,” Capasso said. “We try to stay ahead of these things so that we don’t have system fail

ures before we fix them.” The Fitchburg Art Museum closed its doors in March when the coronavirus began spreading across the state.

On July 22, residents were welcomed back and invited to explore some of the museum’s current exhibits.

According to Capasso, more

individuals visited the museum from July 22 to Aug. 26 this year than in the

previous years.

“I was surprised,” Capasso said.

“But I think people have been museum-starved because we were closed for a long time, and the Fitchburg Art Museum opened

earlier than others,” he added.

Capasso said the museum is in compliance with state and federal health regulations and encouraged residents to check out what the FAM has to offer.

COURTESY FITCHBURG ART MUSEUM Crews have been hard at work replacing the roofs on two of the Fitchburg Art Museum buildings for the past several weeks. The project is expected to be finished by week’s end.

COURTESY FITCHBURG ART MUSEUM Construction crews working on the Fitchburg Art Museum when it first expanded decades ago.