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UIHC awarded $49.4M in dispute over defective Children’s Hospital windows
‘We are pleased with the arbitration panel’s decision and thankful this case has been resolved’
Jul. 8, 2025 10:27 am, Updated: Jul. 9, 2025 7:15 am
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IOWA CITY — With crews in the midst of replacing nearly every window encasing its eight-year-old Stead Family Children’s Hospital, the University of Iowa on Tuesday announced it has won a $49.4 million arbitration award over the defective windows.
“We are pleased with the arbitration panel’s decision and thankful this case has been resolved,” UI Vice President for Medical Affairs and Carver College of Medicine Dean Denise Jamieson said in a statement. “We remain committed to providing patients and their loved ones with a safe place to receive outstanding care.”
UIHC officials first noticed cracking and delamination across the 14-story Children’s Hospital shortly after it opened in 2017 — prompting administrators in 2019 to hire a consultant to investigate the extent of the damage “in anticipation of potential litigation.”
Since UIHC started bringing window-replacement proposals to the Board of Regents in 2021, the cost and breadth of the work has swelled from $10 to $15 million for two floors of windows to $52.5 million for a “near-total window replacement.”
With the Children’s Hospital playground closed as a precaution and temporary film installed to keep the windows secure pending permanent replacement, UI in 2022 sued the Missouri-based Cupples International Inc. and Iowa City-based Knutson Construction Services responsible for the windows — accusing them of installing a defective “curtainwall system” rife with faulty and cracking “insulated glass units.”
“(The university’s) investigation determined that the (insulated glass units) suffer from systemic defects and absent mitigation and stabilization efforts … potentially life-safety threatening conditions,” according to the lawsuit, further explaining UIHC was forced to "undertake mitigation efforts to protect its patients, guests, employees and the general public from potential life safety issues associated with the defective conditions, specifically the potential for falling glass.“
Due to the risks, UIHC began implementing temporary and permanent fixes without knowing if the installation companies would be forced to cover the costs.
“We are and will continue the efforts to establish causes related to this and intend to hold responsible the causing parties,” UI Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations Rod Lehnertz told regents in 2021.
Although settlement details were not made public Tuesday, the $49.4 million arbitration award covers much of the more than $52 million regents have approved to date to replace nearly all the windows in the hospital — which saw extensive delays, design changes, mismanagement, and defects on its way to completion.
Change orders and lawsuits stemming from the project drove up its budget from a starting $270.8 million to more than $400 million — excluding the window costs.
Taking a phased approach to the window replacement “to avoid disruptions to care while protecting the safety of patients, visitors, and employees,” UIHC expects to have all the defective windows replaced by the end of 2026.
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
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