UI campus prepares for floods as ’08 projects move ahead
By Pat Shaver
IOWA CITY—By 2016, the University of Iowa will look like a new campus.
Just five years after the 2008 flood destroyed many university buildings, the university has been preparing for another potential flood, using lessons learned from 2008 to keep buildings safe.
Rod Lehnertz, UI director of planning design and construction, said UI officials are fairly confident the mitigation measures installed since the 2008 flood will keep the campus safe from another disaster.
Barriers were installed at the Art Building, Theatre Building, Museum of Art and Hancher-Voxman-Clapp complex, and an invisible wall was erected around the Art Building West in late May.
About 22 UI buildings sustained major damage from the June 2008 flood. Several of the university’s arts and theater buildings were among the most severely damaged.
Recovery plans include replacement of buildings, and protection and repair of others.
“Every damaged building being recovered has a different story,” he said. “We learned from 2008 what this river can do. We learned a great deal.”
Several major projects are expected to be complete by 2016. To date, flood recovery at the UI has cost about $240.5 million.
“The message is a positive one. We will be permanently protected and we will be a different campus when we emerge in 2016,” Mr. Lehnertz said.
During the next 18 months, UI and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics will be bidding about $1 billion of projects.
Hancher Auditorium
The building is currently undergoing asbestos removal work before the auditorium can be completely demolished this fall, Mr. Lehnertz said.
Once demolished, the area that housed Hancher will remain green space. The new building, on campus north of the former facility at 141 E. Park Road, is under construction. The site is 7 feet above the 500-year flood plain.
Plans include a three-level lobby with views of Iowa River and campus, a 1,800-seat auditorium with two balconies and separate rehearsal space suitable for programming. The building has been designed in scale with the neighboring Levitt Center.
The new Hancher Auditorium is expected to be complete in the spring of 2016.
Pelli Clarke Pelli, based in New Haven, Conn., designed the new building. The firm has designed many of the world’s tallest and most recognizable buildings, including the World Financial Center in New York, which surrounds the space where the World Trade Center once stood. The local architect-of-record is OPN architects.
The Theatre Building will also undergo several repairs that are expected to progress this summer. The repairs include moving the building’s mechanics out of danger of flood waters and “hardening” the lower level so it would be better prepared in case of a flood, Mr. Lehnertz added.
School of Music
Voxman/Clapp is also undergoing several months of asbestos removal before it will be completely demolished.
The new building in downtown Iowa City will feature a glass exterior and second floor auditoriums. The main entrance will be at corner of Burlington and Clinton streets. After determining that there wasn’t space for the needed 300,000 square feet, the university looked at the downtown area for space.
The UI received Board of Regents approval in 2011 to buy the MidWestOne property at 325 S. Clinton St., for $4.6 million, plus relocation and business interruption costs for the two bank branches on the lot, MidWestOne Bank and Bank of the West.
“We expect it to be a transformative project not only for the school but for the downtown,” Mr. Lehnertz said, adding that construction will finish 2016.
LMN Architects of Seattle was selected to join Iowa City architect-of-record Neumann Monson to design the building. The firm has designed Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony, as well as the eastern section of the Vancouver Convention Center.
School of Art and Art History
The School of Art and Art History remains in temporary facilities. Studio Arts, refurbished the former Menards, 1375 Highway 1 W., Iowa City, extensively with huge studios and new equipment.
The new Art Building will replace studio space lost when the 1936 Art Building was damaged by the flood. Art Building replacement is being designed by architect Steven Holl, who also designed Art Building West. The new facility will be built northwest of Art Building West at least 2 feet above the 500-year flood level. It is expected to be complete by spring 2016.
When the Federal Emergency Management Agency accessed the damage in 2008, it was determined that despite the Art Building West being only a few years old, it could qualify for historic designation. The building opened in 2006 only to be flooded in 2008. It reopened for classes in January 2012.
Usually a building needs to be at least 50 years old or host a major historical event, Mr. Lehnertz said. Due to the building’s unique architecture and its potential to last, it was given a historical designation. Because of that, the university was able to fund a $5 million project to build an “invisible wall” around the building.
It’s called an invisible wall because the wall is not permanently installed around the building, but can be quickly put up if protection is needed, Mr. Lehnertz said.
“This has become the ultimate practice session,” he said, of the recent flood precautions. The 900-foot long, 12-foot high aluminum wall can be erected in 3-5 days. It was installed in late May.
Plans are in place for a similar wall to be put up to protect the Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories.
Museum of Art
The future is still unknown for the University of Iowa Museum of Art.
Many of the museum’s pieces are displayed around the university, but a majority is still being stored and displayed at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport.
FEMA rejected replacement funding of the damaged facility. In February, Iowa Homeland Security submitted to FEMA Region VII a proposal to fund replacement costs pursuant to an alternate FEMA program. That proposal was rejected in March.
The famous Jackson Pollock painting, “Mural,” is undergoing technical study and conservation treatment at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The painting was given to UI in 1951.
The old museum can be repaired for other uses, but the art collection cannot be insured there.
“We will remain creative in bringing the arts back to campus,” Mr. Lehnertz said.
