The doorkeepers of building 280

Photos: Diana Rogers, SLAC

Unless you're looking for them, you might not notice the two stone gargoyles standing watch over building 280 at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In fact, for the first month they were in place, not many people did notice them.

They are easy to miss. The building's architecture, dominated by corrugated metal siding and right angles, makes the rooftop an unlikely place to find these stoic granite sentries. It is, after all, about the farthest from gothic style imaginable.

But Tom Himel, who had a hand in assigning the guards to their post in 1996, disagrees. "This building absolutely cries out for gargoyles," he says. Iron girders along the outside walls, retrofitted to enhance earthquake safety, reminded Himel and co-conspirator Bruce Feerick of flying buttresses. "If you have flying buttresses, you have to have gargoyles," he says.

Himel procured the gargoyles from a mail order catalog, and Feerick machined a pair of base plates to anchor them in position. Under cover of early morning, Himel and Feerick furtively clambered up to the roof and fastened the statues in place. Since most of building 280's occupants hadn't yet arrived, Himel and Feerick were confident their secret was safe.

But Tonya Boysen, the building supervisor at the time, noticed the addition right away. Her main concern? Himel says, "she wanted to know if they were an earthquake hazard."

Matthew Early Wright