ILPC approves Sibley Hall stair repairs with red granite treads and snow-melt system

The Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday approved a certificate of appropriateness for exterior repairs at Sibley Hall on Cornell University's Arts Quad, allowing the university to replace two outside stair runs and make associated masonry and drainage repairs.

The commission voted to approve an application presented by Jay Sharmeta, associate university architect at Cornell, to replace deteriorated Medina sandstone treads with red granite, replace in-kind limestone cheek walls where needed, install encaustic tile on the upper landing to match the existing pattern, remove a nonhistoric basement entrance and add a roof leader tied into the campus storm system. "The stairs are original, and they are in very poor condition," Sharmeta told the commission. "We don't really see a viable…