Hunter
9/20/19
The state Board of Regents have given the okay to the University of Iowa’s request to restore three Pentacrest buildings over the next eight to ten years.
The $88.7 million request will be sweetened with $30 million in funds from the University.
The plan is to restore MacLean, MacBride and Jessup Halls, which have not been given a thorough overhaul in decades. They range in age from 95 to 111 years old. They were previously set for upgrades but that was in 2007; the following year’s flood diverted those funds to buildings that needed immediate attention.
The Daily Iowan reports the project will save the school about $30 million in deferred maintenance costs, costs that could have risen by nearly fifty percent in five years.
Plans call for overhauling HVAC and electrical systems, and returning the buildings to one hundred-percent academic space.