"An embarrassment," says Fred Barnum, author of the 1991 book His Master's Voice in America, a history of RCA-Victor and related companies.
"We've been calling and calling" the building's management, adds Ron McHugh, a Pine Hill resident who has an extensive collection of company memorabilia.
Now it looks as if Nipper's long wait is almost over.
Carl Dranoff, whose company transformed the onetime "Victrola" plant into the snazzy, 341-unit complex, expects a $75,000-plus restoration of the windows to begin soon.
"We have been at this for many, many, many, many months," Dranoff says, perhaps mindful of complaints about the marred top of his tower.
"We had to discover what the problem was," he explains. "Then we had to find someone qualified to fix it. These are all separate, handmade [stained-glass] parts."
Gartner Stained Glass Studios of Abington will do the honors. "The stained-glass artist has already taken [samples] of the remaining windows and is preparing to commence the work," says project manager Michael Asnes.
He expects that replacement panels will be fabricated within the next two months and that repairs will be finished by the end of the year.
It's not a simple task. The circular windows are 15 feet in diameter and stand 12 stories above Market Street.
The original windows from 1916 were removed in the 1970s. They were re-created and reinstalled in the 1980s, and again in 1998.
"We thought the windows would be up there for 20 or 30 years," says Dranoff, who bought the building in 2002.
The $75 million transformation of what had been RCA Building 17 into The Victor was completed in 2004; some time after, individual glass panels began to blow into the tower's interior.
"Water, wind, and pigeons have weakened the internal frames which hold the panels in place," Asnes says.
