The construction you see at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, to fix the exterior waterproofing, is a big job. But UC's cost is zero, under the terms of a $7.1 million mediated settlement with the builder and others.

The repair work is under way, with most of the performing arts center sheathed in white plastic. Inside, the center’s 10th season goes on, unaffected.

The plastic sheeting covers a giant network of scaffolding on the north and south sides of the building, and around the egg-shaped box office. Two ticket windows remain open — through a cutout in the plastic.

Workers used a shrink-wrap process when they installed the plastic, so it is tight. It looks so form fitting, as a matter of fact, that you might think the artist Christo had done it for another of his giant wrapping works.

The only art here, though, is the repair work — in which workers are chipping off the Mondavi Center’s sandstone tiles, redoing the waterproof membrane and then installing new tiles.

The aim is to stop rainwater from getting inside the walls, as has happened periodically since the building went up. Construction took place from 2000 to 2002, at a cost of $53.5 million.

The membrane goes on as a liquid, then dries, on the sheathing under the tiles. As originally applied, the membrane was not thick enough, said Assistant Vice Chancellor Clayton Halliday, the campus architect.

Workers are removing the tiles (an estimated 50,000 alone on the center’s south wall) and the sheathing, then putting up new sheathing, new membrane and new tiles.

Unfortunately, the existing tiles cannot be reused — for the simple reason that the tiles are breaking apart as they are chipped off the walls.

The replacement tiles are coming from the same quarry in India that supplied the first batch.

UC came to the settlement with 16 other parties: the general contractor, McCarthy Building Cos.; 10 subcontractors; three insurance companies; the outside architect; and the company that provided the waterproofing membrane and other materials used in the construction of the exterior stone veneer.

The settlement “does not represent any admission of liability” of any of the parties, and, in fact, each part denies liability, according to the agreement.

The settlement fund comprises payments from 13 "settling parties," UC not among them. The payments include a low of $30,000 from Capitol Builders Hardware; $150,000 from Laticrete International Inc., which supplied the membrane; and a high of nearly $2.7 million from McCarthy.

The agreement divided the settlement fund as follows:

• McCarthy gets $4.85 million to make the repairs, and $1.04 million for its defense and investigative costs.

• UC gets $1.22 million for past expert, attorney and investigative fees or costs, as well as any future expert and consultant costs concerning the design, inspection, monitoring and testing of any of the repair work.

Halliday has said previously that the university and McCarthy and the other settling defendants worked through all the issues amicably, and that UC Davis retains its good relationship with McCarthy — which, subsequent to the Mondavi Center, built the Activities and Recreation Center, the Student Health and Wellness Center, and the Segundo Services Center.