With a history almost as old as Cornell itself, the Hydraulics Lab’s sudden collapse into Fall Creek Gorge in February left many baffled and surprised. Now the remains of the lab are set to be dismantled and demolished in an effort to clear the gorge of safety hazards and to potentially convert the site into a sitting area with a scenic view of the gorge.

The Hydraulics Lab was built in 1898 along the dam encircling Beebe Lake for the purpose of studying water purification, according to a New York Times archived article. The lab closed in the 1960s due to water damage, but had remained intact as an unchanging landmark.

Some thought was put into conserving the stone from the existing building and using it for another purpose.

“We have been talking to the grounds department about whether they have a use for the stone and can use it for other projects. All of the good stone and original structure is at the bottom of the gorge, what is left there now was probably added around 1960,” said Stephen Beyers, an architect from the Department of Environmental Compliance and Sustainability and the service team leader on the Hydraulics Lab.

For the future, there are plans to create a nice sitting space in the area currently occupied by the Hydraulics Lab.

“We will assess what is left and try to make a nice overlook on the gorge. Once the building is removed, there will be a nice view. In the next five years when the building gets out, we would like to have something with a rail and some benches,” Beyers said.

The building’s remaining foundation and top — which connects with the sidewalk — are still currently in place and the University has been working to determine the safest way to take the remaining structure down, according to Beyers.

“We had a geotechnical engineer from Syracuse who is coming up in about a week with a report so we don’t cause damage to the cliff or dangers to the area because we are right at the edge there," Beyers said. "We also have a contractor from the Rochester area to give us a cost estimate to have [the remains] removed. Assuming that the geotechnical engineer doesn’t have any big changes [to what we have,] then we have a plan ready."

The preliminary plan for the project has already been approved and money has been set aside for the project to proceed this year, according to Kyu-Jung Whang, vice president of facilities services.

“We have been grouping projects into quarters: summer, spring, winter and fall. We have been working on all of the summer projects and now we are in the process of approving projects for the fall quarter. This project is on the fall list. Within the next week we will have all of these projects authorized to proceed,” Whang said.

The building will be systematically taken apart piece by piece from top to bottom, separating the materials as the workers proceed. The goal is to pull things away from the cliff edge, leaving the slab of the building in place as long as possible.

“We don’t really want to put people down there because we don’t want to put people at risk. This type of operation requires a sophisticated company with sophisticated equipment,” Beyers said.Disappearing history: The collapsed Hydraulics Lab as seen on Feb. 17.

Despite the solid plans to make the Hydraulics Lab location a convenient and picturesque area, some students are sad to see the old lab go.

“I think that taking down the Hydraulics Lab will be more aesthetically pleasing, but the Hydraulics Lab was a Cornell icon, so it is very sad to see it [go]. We should have a little memorial there, a plaque to commemorate the Hydraulics Lab,” Emily Cusick ’12 said.

While agreeing that the Hydraulics Lab is a Cornell landmark, Whang said that the structure should be removed for a number of practical reasons.

“I think it is one of those facilities that defines Cornell and has always been there, but it is a facility that hasn’t been used in so many years and it’s been an eyesore and nuisance for security reasons and despite the fact that it is Cornell history, it is a facility that does not serve its purpose anymore and it really ought to go for safety reasons,” Whang said.

Efforts to preserve the deteriorating Lab, if any, came too late.

“At one point [the Lab] might have been worth preserving, but it’s very hard to preserve something like that because you get wrapped up in new building codes. There are some people who think it’s too bad, but that decision should have been made 30 years ago before the roof started caving in.”