U. of Iowa Plans Repairs to Holl’s Landmark Art Building West

Art Building West, which won an American Institute of Architects Honor Award in 2007, has been closed since the June 2008 flood that inundated much of the U. of Iowa campus. (Chronicle photos by Lawrence Biemiller)

Iowa City — After extensive negotiations with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the University of Iowa accepted bids on Tuesday on a project to reopen a much-praised art building damaged in the June 2008 floods that caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to the campus.

The project will restore Art Building West, designed by Steven Holl Architects and opened in 2006, to its original appearance. The building, which earned a 2007 honor award from the American Institute of Architects, is best known for a library wing cantilevered out over an old quarry pond.

The 2008 flood, which affected 22 of the university’s buildings, caused tremendous damage to the low-lying arts campus, on the west side of the Iowa River. Other buildings that remain closed are Hancher Auditorium, Clapp Recital Hall, the Museum of Art, and a complex of art buildings that included teaching and studio space. Hancher and Clapp are due to be replaced; the university is still discussing the fate of the museum building with federal officials.

The reopening of Art Building West has been delayed while university and FEMA officials debated how best to protect the building in the event that another flood reaches the same level as the unprecedented 2008 event, during which water rose several feet into the building’s first floor. Rodney P. Lehnertz, the university’s director of campus and facilities planning, said Iowa would construct a foundation around the building that “will look like a sidewalk.” But it will have special fittings for erecting a wall of I-beams and aluminum panels to protect the building if flooding is predicted. Putting up the wall would take about a day, he said.

Mr. Holl has been chosen to design another art building for a site above Art Building West. When both buildings are open, the university will be able to reunite its art-history courses, which have been relocated to the main campus, with its studio-art programs, which currently occupy a former big-box store some distance from downtown.

A temporary ventilation system has protected the building from mold since the flood.

A new sidewalk-like foundation around the building will allow the university to put up a flood-control wall in about a day.

A system of pumps will control water levels in the old quarry pond in the event of another flood.