Move Hancher? Relocating buildings is nothing new at the UI

IOWA CITY - Critics and skeptics panned a proposal to move a large University of Iowa building that still stands.

This wasn't the UI's Hancher Auditorium, which some Iowans would like to see moved and preserved after being flooded in June 2008.

The year was 1900. Science Hall, constructed in 1884 just to the north of Old Capitol where Macbride Hall was later built, was deemed insufficient for its original purpose.

David McCartney, archivist for the UI Libraries' department of special collections, said UI professors Thomas Macbride and Samuel Calvin argued against tearing down the building.

Instead, McCartney said, they endorsed moving it off the central lawn of campus to a new site, about 200 feet to the northwest.

“The building was (less than) 20 years old, and Calvin and Macbride reasoned that it would be wasteful to demolish it,” he said.

The three-story brick building weighed 6,000 tons and measured 115 feet by 86 feet.

McCartney noted that the idea was not without its critics. Despite the opposition, a Chicago firm, L.P. Friestedt and Co., was awarded the $18,000 contract.

From April until August 1905, a crew moved the building to the northwest corner of Market and North Capitol streets, using an elaborate series of 6-inch rollers, jacks and turning jackscrews. A typical day's move was about one yard; the longest one-day stretch was 17 feet.

Despite its size and weight, McCartney said the building - later renamed Calvin Hall - was not cracked or damaged during the move. Classes were held in the building as usual that summer.

Iowans have become more accustomed to seeing buildings moved since the 2008 floods. Modern methods use hydraulic jacks, computerized systems and specialized trucks, generally taking days instead of months for a move.

This fall, leaders of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids announced plans to move the museum from the banks of the Cedar River to a nearby location where it will be elevated.

The museum's president and CEO, Gail Naughton, said the goal is to have the 18,000-square-foot building moved by the end of 2010. Cost has been estimated at $740,000.

Jeremy Patterson, owner of Jeremy Patterson Structural Movers of Washington, Iowa, proposed moving Hancher at a cost of $25 million.

The price tag to build a new auditorium/music building has been estimated at $276 million, 90 percent of which would be paid by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“That's one-quarter billion in tax dollars,” Patterson said.

UI officials will make a recommendation in February to the state Board of Regents.

Spokesman Tom Moore said all suggestions are on the table, but Patterson said his proposal was dismissed by the UI. Emphasis at most meetings has been on a site for a new building.

Hancher, which opened in 1972, has been deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and the historical significance of performances at the venue.

Patterson said he didn't care who moved the 276,000-square-foot building, noting that three other firms in the United States would be qualified to do so.

“The best recycling is to recycle buildings,” he said, citing the 1905 move of Calvin Hall. “We live in a world that needs to turn green.”