Hunter
04/01/21
Less than five years after the opening of the Stead Family Children’s Hospital on the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics campus, officials say they need up to $15 million to replace defective windows.
The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that if their request is approved by the Board of Regents at their meeting next week, it would push the total cost of the project over $407 million. CEO Suresh Gunasekaran told the paper that after noticing some cracking in a few isolated windows on the fourth and fifth floor in 2019, they hired an outside firm to inspect all of them. The hospital ended up closing the hospital’s playground that year out of an abundance of caution, and installed protective film over windows of concern last summer.
Gunasekaran stressed that the issue with the windows has nothing to do with the structure of the Children’s Hospital itself, and are determining if insurance or manufacturer’s warranties can help cover the cost of replacement.