UI reveals plans for nearly $100M in building projects
Children’s hospital seeks more postpartum rooms
The University of Iowa is seeking board approval for a handful of building projects totaling more than $100 million.
The university recently unveiled plans for a $20 million state-of-the-art gymnastics and spirit squad facility while they also hope to add several postpartum rooms to the Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
The Regents will also consider a proposal to expand the Cambus bus barn for $18 million at their monthly meeting Wednesday, Sept. 27 in Iowa City. Additionally, the University of Iowa seeks permission to modernize the Lenore Hansen Football Performance Center locker rooms for a $2.5 million price tag.
The 8th floor of Stead Family Children’s Hospital will be used for postpartum recovery
Floors seven and eight at the University of Iowa’s Stead Family Children’s Hospital were purposely left empty for future development when the building opened in 2017.
The roughly $40 million eighth-floor build-out, plans for which the university is presenting to the board next week, will include 28 postpartum rooms in addition to support space, family waiting rooms and provider work rooms.
The new wing would help support a growing maternity program, the UI said in its filing with the Regents. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics anticipates a 34% increase in newborn deliveries in the next five years and 63% in the next decade.
The project cost is estimated between $39 and $41 million and would be paid for using the University Hospital’s Building Usage Funds.
The Regents recently approved a seventh-floor project for neonatal care expansion.
Gymnastics and spirit squad could get a home to call their own
Iowa’s gymnastics program and spirit squads have called the aging Field House home for decades, forced to share common areas with fellow students and residents.
The university’s $20 million proposal plans to provide the programs with their own state-of-the-art facility.
In their pitch to the Board of Regents, UI officials say the Fieldhouse is inadequate for the gymnastics team, forced to split time with the Hawkeye spirit squad.
The Regents will consider plans for a 32,700-square-foot training center built on the far west side of campus, near the women’s soccer and field hockey facilities and across from the Hawkeye Tennis & Recreation Complex.
The $20 million building would include such amenities as separate training areas for both programs, space for an athletic trainer, a medical room, new locker rooms and a multipurpose room.
The spirit squad includes UI cheerleaders, the dance team, and Herky, the University of Iowa mascot.
Construction will be funded by gifts and earnings from Hawkeye athletics.
Cambus hopes to modernize bus barn storage
Cambus, the university’s campuswide local public transportation entity, has initiated an $18 million expansion project to help modernize and expand the organization’s 50-year-old maintenance garage.
Built in 1973, the facility stores all 35 buses overnight, situated a quarter-ofa-mile south of Burlington Street on the banks of the Iowa River. Cambus seeks an expansion in order to properly house a fleet of new electric buses as well as to address facility shortcomings.
The UI’s primary on-campus public transit system has run out of storage space, forcing Cambus mechanics to work out of the West Campus Transportation Center for more than a
decade. Fleet services staff are also working out of a temporary trailer west of the bus barn.
The expansion would make room for the 12 new electric buses scheduled to roll into Iowa City streets by 2025.
Facility upgrades would be facilitated by federal grant money and transportation reserves.
Locker rooms at the football training facility getting a facelift
The locker rooms at the Stew and Lenore Hansen Football Performance Center have worn down in the 11 years since the facility’s inception, forcing the university to request a $2.5 million renovation.
“It is dark, worn and outdated, and no longer reflects the status of the Iowa football team for recruitment efforts,” the proposal said.
The project would include structural enhancements, a new, Hawkeye-centric job, in addition to a new floor and ceiling. An updated audio and visual system would be installed as well. The 130 students who currently use the locker room facility, the university said, will be relocated to Kinnick Stadium during construction.
Hawkeye Sports’ gifts and earnings would also fund the $2.5 million project, similar to the gymnastics and spirit squad project. Construction would be the largest of the costs at around $2 million.
Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@presscitizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.