The Federal Emergency Management Agency released $152,534,261.65 to the University of Iowa Wednesday to help replace buildings ruined by the flood that swept through the middle of the campus in June 2008. The money will go toward new homes for the Hancher Auditorium (left; Chronicle photograph) and the Voxman School of Music, as well as toward a new art building and the cost of eight temporary heating and air-conditioning units that sustained the campus while its damaged power plant was closed.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, announced the award in a news release.

Earlier this month the university chose the architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli to design a replacement for the 1972 auditorium, designed by Max Abramowitz. And Steven Holl Architects is working on plans for a new art building. The university plans to move the music school from its current location beside the...

"Landmark" is an easy term to overuse—it can serve as a sort of courtesy title for good design—but Antoine Predock's 1993 Classroom Laboratory Administration Building at the California State Polytechnic University at Pomona is a landmark in the true sense of the word: It's an unmistakable complex with an iconic, triangle-topped tower that is easily visible to commuters passing the campus morning, noon, and night on busy Interstate 10.

It is also, apparently, doomed.

Last week the California State University Board of Trustees approved a plan to demolish the two-building complex, which university officials said had "taxed operational budgets and personnel due to a number of construction flaws and mechanical-system failures." It will be replaced, officials said, with "a student-services building that is much easier to navigate than the CLA."

The trustees approved the demolition after ...

• Southern Methodist U. Opens 41,000-Square-Foot Home for Its Education College (Photo by Ian Aberle)

• St. John's U. Plans $25-Million Renovation of Its Marcel Breuer Library (Read more about the university's Breuer buildings here)

• Chemical Spill in U. of Rochester's Utility Plant Injures 3

• Yale U. Students Form Club for Underappreciated Architecture

The U. of Cincinnati's Care/Crawley Building provides swing space for renovations to the larger Medical Sciences Building behind it. (Chronicle photographs by Lawrence Biemiller)

Swing space is always a challenge on campuses: A building is overdue for renovation, but before the work can begin, the occupants have to be moved elsewhere. With overcrowding the rule at colleges across the country, where can those people go for a year or two?

Some institutions put up swing-space buildings, like the residence hall into which Yale University undergraduates have moved, college by college, while the university's Collegiate Gothic residential quadrangles have undergone makeovers. Other institutions find swing space in campus basements (as did Pomona College) or off campus (the Johns Hopkins University bought a nearby apartment tower and used part of it for faculty offices during the recent...

• U. of Texas at Dallas Celebrates Campus-Enhancement Effort (U. of Texas at Dallas photo)

• Current U. of California at San Diego Construction Projects Total $1.75-Billion

• Arizona State U. Polytechnic Campus Plans New Dorms, Dining Hall

• Despite New Buildings, U. of Georgia's Appetite for Space Remains Unslaked

• Rec Center Addition at U. of Arizona Earns LEED Platinum Certification (U. of Arizona photo)

• U. of Pennsylvania Buys 23-Acre Parcel for Auxiliary Services

• Seattle U. Library Reopens After 37,000-Square-Foot Expansion

• Las Positas College Begins Construction of New Science Building

A drought that began in late June has led the University of Connecticut to adopt increasingly strict water-conservation measures—and, as of next Monday, to switch to paper plates and plastic utensils in its dining halls, where students consume about 180,000 meals each week.

“Our dish machines, while water-efficient, still utilize large quantities of water,” wrote Dennis Pierce, the university's director of dining services, in an e-mail message circulated on the campus. “We will minimize the use of water only to sanitize service-ware, and hope that our efforts and students’ understanding will set an example to the university community.”

Mr. Pierce isn't sure what the switch to disposable products will cost, The Hartford Courant reports, and he says he expect to get questions from students concerned about how much additional trash the university will send to landfills. But the...

• Grand Valley State U. Breaks Ground for $65-Million Library (Grand Valley State U. rendering)

• Cleaning 'Atomic Waste Burial Plot' Beside Stadium Will Cost Kansas State U. $4-Million

• U. of Massachusetts Trustees Approve Borrowing $546-Million for Construction Projects

• As U. of California at San Diego Turns 50, a Book and a Lecture Series Celebrate Its Architecture

The U. of Cincinnati Central Utility Plant was built in two phases. The older section is in the foreground above, while the newer section is pictured below. (Chronicle photographs by Lawrence Biemiller)

There's no question that the University of Cincinnati's Central Utility Plant is a sharp-looking facility. And it's about to become even more efficient than it already is.

Designed by Cambridge Seven Associates to replace an old coal-fired plant beside the university's football stadium, the new facility sits on a prominent ridge between the university's main campus and a residential neighborhood, so its appearance matters to both communities. It opened in two phases, the first in 1992 and the second in 2004. The original section holds a gas-fired steam plant, which serves the main campus as well as the medical campus and some nearby hospitals. The 2004 addition houses chillers and...

• Portland State U. Renovates Its Longtime Performing-Arts Facility—a 1911 High School  (Portland State U. photo)

• Report Says Energy Use has Dropped 23 Pct. at U. of Colorado at Boulder

• City's Concerns May Stall Wind-Turbine Plan at Fort Hays State U.

• Habitat for Humanity Builds a House on a Parking Lot at Indiana U. at Bloomington