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Home / News / Education

New University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time coming

Vanessa MillerBy: Vanessa Miller Jan. 24, 2020 9:02 pm Updated: Jan. 24, 2020 9:02 pm
New University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time comingNew University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time comingNew University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time comingNew University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time comingNew University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time comingNew University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time comingNew University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time comingNew University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time comingNew University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time comingNew University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time comingNew University of Iowa Brain Sciences Building a long time coming

IOWA CITY - Five years after the Board of Regents rejected a University of Iowa request to renovate its antiquated Seashore Hall - which housed one of its largest undergraduate departments - the campus on Friday finally realized its dream of a modern home for the Psychological and Brain Sciences.

In dedicating the new $33.5 million Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Building, the university introduced its first centralized home for the popular department, which boasts 1,200 psychology majors, 500 minors and 200-plus undergraduates conducting research in its labs.

Before now, the largest department in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences was dispersed among three buildings - Spence Laboratories of Psychology, Stuit Hall and Seashore, built in 1899 as the campus' first hospital.

The psychology department was assigned space in Seashore in 1930, with administrators long appealing for a more adequate environment.

After breaking ground on the six-story, 66,470-square-foot building east of Spence Labs, UI President Bruce Harreld in 2018 didn't mince words.

'I say this with humor, but I actually at times do worry about where the cockroaches and other rodents are going to go,” Harreld said, referencing the dilapidated Seashore. 'This is how bad we have let things get.”

With the university pushing a renewed emphasis on neuroscience - creating the Iowa Neuroscience Institute in 2016 and introducing an undergraduate major in neuroscience in 2017 - the department's first centralized home is expected to 'transform teaching and research.”

It will, according to UI officials, 'position the university to better prepare students for learning modern psychology, and finding jobs in the field.”

The building is a long time coming, with the university in September 2014 pitching a $27 million project that would have modernized portions of Seashore Hall and eliminated outdated components.

Regents Milt Dakovich and Larry McKibben criticized that proposal as fixing something 'broken and old,” prompting the university to return years later with an amended pitch.

Crews broke ground on the new Psychological and Brain Sciences Building in October 2017, and some administrators began using it this month, according to spokesman Richard Lewis.

In conjunction with the project, the university is razing Seashore Hall, work that started in 2000 with the structurally deficient southwest wing. The Board of Regents in 2016 approved razing the southeast section.

Then in September 2019, regents approved the third and final razing of Seashore, allowing crews to take down the remaining 128,000 square feet deemed 'inadequate to serve the teaching and research missions of current occupants.”

By razing the space, UI officials projected saving $27.8 million in deferred maintenance costs. The $2.8 million to demolish Seashore is coming from Treasurer's Temporary Investment Income.

The university is tapping that source and a combination of others, including gifts and earnings, to cover the cost of the new building.

The UI Center for Advancement reported the university set no public fundraising goal for the project and has raised about $500,000 to date.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com

Kent Clark, from the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, gives introductory remarks Friday at the dedication of the new Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Building on the UI campus. The $33.5 million building will provide classroom and lab space for psychology majors, one of the UI's most popular fields of study. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
This photo shows the exterior of the new Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
Kent Clark, from the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, gives introductory remarks Friday at the dedication of the new Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Building in Iowa City. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld listens Friday during the dedication of the $33.5 million Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Building in Iowa City. Previously, classrooms and labs for popular psychology programs were spread among three buildings. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
Mark Blumberg, chairman of the University of Iowa Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, leads a tour Friday of the new building housing his department. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
Graduate teaching assistant offices feature flexible seating areas, desk spaces and private offices at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Building on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
Windows in a common area overlook Seashore Hall on the third floor of the new Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in Iowa City. Seashore, opened in 1899, is being razed. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
University of Iowa professor Bob McMurray (left) describes an eye-tracking study Friday, as postdoctoral scholar Sarah Colby (center) and Growing Words Project coordinator Jamie Klein-Packard demonstrate the work in their lab, at the new UI Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Building in Iowa City. Improvements in lab spaces include quieter testing rooms and computer kiosks outside of the rooms for use by researchers. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
University of Iowa professor Bob McMurray explains the work of his lab on Friday during tours of the new UI Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Building in Iowa (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
Gathering spaces on the lower level of the new Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences building are shown Friday in Iowa City. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
Gathering spaces on the lower level of the new Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences are shown Friday in Iowa City. o (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
Daily Report, University of Iowa
Vanessa Miller

Vanessa Miller

Reporter, The Gazette

Higher education reporter for The Gazette in Eastern Iowa. I love news tips, story ideas and reader feedback.

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