By GREGORY ZELLER //
The devastating fire that tore through the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe isn’t the end for the last standing laboratory of famed inventor Nikola Tesla.
That’s the word from the ambitious project’s supporters, who’ve been picking up the pieces – literally and figuratively – since last week’s blaze and on Tuesday officially launched a new crowdfunding campaign to get the years-long refurbishing effort back on track.
More than 100 firefighters, representing 17 local fire departments and ambulance corps, responded to the fire late in the day on Nov. 21; several returned when the flames reignited on the morning of Nov. 22.
One firefighter was injured during the battle, in a fall from a ladder, and briefly hospitalized. The fire does not appear to be suspicious in nature – “Definitely looks accidental,” TSCW Executive Director Marc Alessi told Innovate Long Island – but the investigation is ongoing this week.
However it started, architects and engineers estimate the blaze caused roughly $3 million in damages, including the total loss of the laboratory’s roof – a major blow for a decades-long rehabilitation effort that not only saved the Shoreham property from the wrecking ball, but has aspired to turn Tesla’s last laboratory into a museum, learning center and permanent testament to the Serbian American’s greatness.
That’s still the plan, according to Alessi, who noted the fire erupted just as supporters “were feeling the wind at our back.”
Marc Alessi: Undaunted.
“We were in the best position we’d ever been in the night before the fire,” he said Tuesday. “We’d just held a fundraising gala, which was very successful (about $300,000 raised), and Suffolk County had announced a $1.5 million grant for the project, putting us at $14 million raised.
“This had always been a $20 million project,” Alessi added. “That number hasn’t shifted, except for this new expense.”
To cover the “new expense,” supporters have launched the new $3 million Indiegogo campaign. That’s just enough to “get us back where we were,” according to the executive director, who credited the heroic response of regional firefighters – and superior brickwork by architect Stanford White way back in 1901 – with preventing a catastrophic loss.
“The night of the fire, we were worried that we were losing the entire lab,” he noted. “But we didn’t, thankfully … Stanford White built a really great building.”
Also responding to the crisis is the Serbian government, which has a keen interest in the Long Island renovation project. Serbian Consul General Vladimir Bozovic, who personally attended the Nov. 16 gala, was back in Shoreham the morning after the fire and has “committed to helping us raise the funds we need,” Alessi noted.
The TSCW exec is scheduled to meet with the Serbian delegation again Thursday, along with potential donors from throughout the Serbian diaspora (the global population of Serbian expatriates).
While an official strategy is still being developed, the simple plan now is to raise as much money as possible, as quickly as possible, and to “accelerate the exterior envelope of the laboratory, to protect it,” Alessi said. That includes the demolition of “derelict buildings” (already scheduled to come down) surrounding the laboratory building, the installation of reinforcing brickwork along the lab’s four exterior walls and, of course, a roof replacement – with loads of emergency tarping in the meantime.
Up in smoke: Not quite … the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe is still standing after the devastating fire of Nov. 21 and 22.
“Right now, when it rains, everything gets wet,” Alessi noted. “When we get into freezing weather, that’s going to be a real issue.”
While “extremely grateful” for the support received so far, the Tesla Science Center has never needed friends more than it does now, according to Alessi, who now estimates a $9 million price tag to complete the project once and for all.
“Supporters have come from near and far, wanting to help us complete the project,” he added. “Of course, this hits the reset button on the specific plan that we were executing – but at the same time, we’re feeling more enthusiasm (to finish the project) than we’ve seen since the early days of saving the lab.”
To that end, instead of viewing this crisis as an ending or even a hurdle, supporters will consider it “a new beginning,” according to the exec.
“We need to accelerate the process, and funding is critical for that,” Alessi said. “The fire has obviously complicated the process, but we can rebuild.
“This just makes a complicated project more complicated.”
