Music Complex Suffers More Damage in Rain : Buildings: Leaks cause additional problems for the complex at Cal State Long Beach, where a recital hall roof collapsed last summer.

The problem-plagued music complex at Cal State Long Beach, where a 120-ton recital hall roof collapsed last summer, suffered additional damage from recent rainstorms, faculty and university officials said last week.

Two rain-soaked ceiling panels collapsed in the electronic music laboratory, damaging several pieces of equipment, including a television monitor and a music synthesizer, according to Assistant Prof. Martin Herman. A grand piano in a nearby office was also damaged by rain, and at least two other buildings experienced what a Cal State Long Beach spokeswoman described as major roof leaks.

“It is extremely demoralizing,” said piano professor Edith Hirshtal, whose office was damaged by the rain. “Valuable equipment we worked very hard to get is getting destroyed and nobody is taking care of anything. . . . It seems to me that something should have been done (to repair) the rest of the complex, which obviously was built so badly. It has to be incredibly embarrassing.”

Music department faculty members have complained for years about leaky roofs in the 20-structure music complex, which opened in 1982. Even so, the buildings received near-perfect marks in annual maintenance inspections until last January, when the complex was graded less than satisfactory because of roof leaks.

University officials said they budgeted $53,000 for roof repairs last year, but the work was put on hold when the Gerald R. Daniel Recital Hall roof collapsed July 2 and five additional buildings were subsequently shut because of concerns about structural safety. Cal State spokeswoman Toni Beron said last week that she did not know when repairs on the leaky roofs would begin.

“The complex has been plagued with roof leaks in the past,” Beron said. “We are inspecting all of the buildings to see what the problem is.”

No one was injured by the falling ceiling in the music lab, which is located in one of the buildings that has been closed since July. Herman, who discovered the damages last week, said the lab has been used only to store electronic equipment.

“The laser printer had water dripping in it,” he said. “I blow-dried it as fast as I could. It is not a catastrophe, thank God, but just one more disappointment. The university is doing the best they can, but the fact remains that things are still happening here with the roofs.”

Hirshtal’s leaky office, which is in a separate building that remained open in the complex, had been used by her students as a practice room. Hirshtal said the working parts of the damaged piano have been removed, the piano covered with plastic and buckets placed beneath the leaking ceiling.

“Eventually, the ceiling is going to collapse, there is no doubt about it,” Hirshtal said.

Beron said the university has not estimated the cost of the rain damage. Herman said the university paid $40,000 for the synthesizer seven years ago, and Hirshtal said technicians predicted that the grand piano would require at least 50 hours of repair work.

Meanwhile, structural repairs to three of the six closed buildings--including the electronic music lab--are expected to begin soon. Beron said plans for the repairs are being reviewed by structural engineers, and university officials expect the buildings will reopen sometime during spring semester, which begins Jan. 28.

The repairs, however, may not plug the leaking roofs.

“We need to look at the buildings and see what the cause of the roof leaks is,” Beron said. “It could be a separate problem.”

Work on the other closed buildings, including the collapsed recital hall, has been delayed by negotiations among the university, the complex’s architects and its contractors over who should pay for the repairs. Beron said the talks have been put on hold while structural engineers examine the three buildings to determine how much the repairs will cost.