Clay tile roofs should last a lifetime, but ECC’s will cost Erie County millions to fix

But the one installed on SUNY Erie Community College’s historic downtown building just 10 years ago has become such a hazard that it is now going to cost taxpayers $4 million to fix.

The county installed the curved clay tiles over part of the roof on the historic Old Post Office building in 2012 and 2013. 

In 2015, one or two tiles fell off, the first warnings that the titles weren’t properly installed, county officials said. In July 2018, and again in February and March of 2019, high winds exceeding 50 and 60 miles per hour led to more clay tiles breaking.

“We immediately got the scaffold up,” said Kristopher Straus, senior construction project manager for the county.

Although the tiles themselves were warrantied for 75 years, it is the roof design process that failed, not the tiles, Public Works Commissioner William Geary said.

The ECC building has had more than its share of problems of late. During the December 2022 blizzard, it was plagued by water damage associated with a break in a frozen sprinkler system on the fifth floor. Damage was so extensive that the building was closed for the semester.

Erie County is not responsible for the water damage repairs, but it is responsible for the roof.

Aside from erecting emergency scaffolding and netting to protect pedestrians from falling tiles, the county also hired New York City-based Hoffman Architects, which conducted a forensic analysis of the roof.