This announcement comes about 1.5 years after the university announced the partnership with the Hieronymus family, locally based H+H Development Group and Minneapolis-based Mortenson Inc. The site, known as Hieronymus Square, is located across the street from the UI School of Music, scheduled to open this fall, according to the Press-Citizen. The university will still cover the costs for all architectural and other work done, which totals about $2 million.

"At some point, probably in the late fall, we got to be concerned with the costs that this was getting to," David Kieft, the university’s business manager, told the Press-Citizen on March 9. "We worked with the developers and the architect to try to bring those costs down, but there are still certain parameters that you’ve got to meet to be an accredited museum and protect your collection."

Because of concerns over the projected costs for the 70,000- to 75,000-square-foot building, a team of about 10 UI administration officials started meeting together to reconsider options for the new museum. Despite the cancellation of the partnership, UI officials announced earlier this month that they are committed to constructing a new building for the university’s approximately 14,000-piece art collection, which has been without a permanent home since its former building was flooded in 2008.

Various large-scale projects for the downtown site have been proposed and ultimately abandoned in the past, reported the Press-Citizen. The university plans to use a different site as well, even though plans for the next phase of the museum have yet to be determined. However, university officials said that some of the planning and design work that has already been completed can be reconfigured and reused in the next phase.
 

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Construction on the $176 million Hancher Auditorium, located on the university’s Arts Campus, should wrap up this spring. Soft-opening events are planned for this summer before the curtain officially rises on the 2016-17 inaugural season this fall. Exterior work on the building is about 95 percent complete, with 14,000 brushed steel panels all in place, reported Iowa City Press-Citizen. The 191,977-square-foot building’s interior, however, is about 85 percent complete. Minneapolis-headquartered M.A. Mortenson Company is serving as the construction manager on the project, while New Haven, Conn.-based Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based OPN Architects are serving as the architects.

The approximately 1,800-seat auditorium is designed to achieve LEED Gold certification. Not only will it feature a multipurpose theater and front-of-house and back-of-house support spaces, it will also include rehearsal room, administrative offices and School of Music program space such as a scene shop, costume shop, recording studio and performing arts production offices, according to the university’s online project information.

The $77 million Art Building, also located on the university’s Arts Campus, should also be ready in time for classes in August 2016. The 126,597-square-foot Art Building will replace the former complex, and is nearly 600 square feet larger than the original in order to account for updated code requirements. The new building will feature art studio spaces, which are currently being housed in a former Menards retail building. Natural light will be incorporated into the four-plus-story structure, which is designed to achieve LEED Silver certification. Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Miron Construction is serving as the construction manager, while New York-based Steven Holl Architects and Des Moines, Iowa-based BNIM Architects are serving as the architects.

Located on the university’s South Campus, the $152 million Voxman Music Building is being built for the School of Music. It will include classrooms, teaching studios, a library, faculty and administrative offices, recital spaces and the replacement of a 700-seat recital and organ hall. The two first floors of the six-story building feature concrete, while a steel structure makes up the remaining four stories. The 189,289-square-foot building is designed for LEED Silver certification. M.A. Mortenson Company is also serving as the construction manager on this project, while Seattle-based LMN Architects and locally based Neumann Monson PC are serving as the architects.

Another major construction project scheduled for completion in mid-2016 is the 14-story UI Children’s Hospital. Construction on the $292 million hospital began in April 2013 and also includes a $65 million parking structure. The project will include 480,000 square feet of new construction and 56,250 square feet of renovated existing space. The original hospital opened in 1919. Providence, R.I.-headquartered Gilbane Building Company is working as construction manager on this project, while New York-based Norman Foster Partners, locally based Heery International and Atlanta-based Stanley Beaman & Sears Architecture and Interiors are working as the architects.
 

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Currently referred to as the Madison Street Residence Hall, the project is expected to cost $95 million with an estimated start date in September. Rather than a simple one-tower high rise, the facility will feature three nine-story towers on a three-story base. That base will sit above the 500-year flood zone on the site of a soon-to-be-demolished water plant.

The majority of rooms within the residence hall will be double occupancy, though some single occupancy rooms and three to four student rooms will be included. In addition to residences, the hall will offer study rooms, recreation and multipurpose spaces, kitchen and dining facilities, a fitness center and a laundry room. Pod-style bathrooms featuring several private, showers, sinks and toilets — a design already implemented in several other University of Iowa dormitories — will also be included.

Iowa City-based architecture firm Rohrbach Associates designed the new hall, which will serve first- and second-year students. Miron Construction of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was awarded the $78 million construction contract in early 2015. The university will complete the project using the design-build method, allowing for completion within a smaller timeframe and a smaller budget.

Anticipating an increase of 500 additional students per year through 2019, the University of Iowa is also working to complete the new 501-bed, $53 million Mary Louise Petersen Hall, which will open in fall 2015. Petersen Hall is the first new residence hall built on the campus since the late 1960s and will replace the 358-bed Quadrangle Hall. Along with the nine other halls already on campus, these two new facilities will bring the campus’ housing capacity to well over 6,000.

“We’re very pleased to be able to move forward on these new projects,” said Tom Rocklin, UI vice president for student life, in a statement. “We anticipate we’ll remain working to accommodate large first-year classes, so this will help us meet student demand and continue offering the best possible living experience for our students.”

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