New UI School of Music will be one building, not two

The new University of Iowa School of Music facility in downtown Iowa City will be built as one structure instead of the planned two structures that university officials had previously announced, UI leaders told state regents Tuesday.

The original plan was to replace the flood-damaged School of Music in two facilities, one at the southwest corner of Clinton and Burlington streets and another at the southeast corner of that intersection in a building that was to be a public-private partnership high-rise development. The two buildings were to be connected by a sky walk.

But the Federal Emergency Management Agency had issues with that plan from the beginning, in part due to the fact that FEMA hadn't funded a building replacement in public-private partnership structure before, UI officials told the state Board of Regents during a meeting in Ames.

So UI officials instead revised their plans for the new School of Music so that it will fit on the one site, on the southwest corner of that intersection. To do that, they moved some of the music programming space to the planned new Hancher Auditorium, which will be rebuilt up the hill from the old flood-damaged Hancher, officials said.

Preliminary designs for replacements of Hancher Auditorium, the School of Music and the Studio Arts building were unveiled for the first time during today's regents meeting in Ames, when UI officials gave the board a flood recovery update.

The project budgets and schematic designs for the three UI replacement facilities will go to the regents for approval in March. Damage and recovery costs to the UI campus from the June 2008 flood are expected to total about $1 billion.

FEMA has obligated about $266 million to the three building replacement projects, which will cost an estimated $386 million. The remainder of the cost will come from UI money, including insurance reimbursements.

The three replacement buildings are expected for substantial completion by early 2016, UI officials said.

Also during the update, UI officials said they would work with FEMA to save the oldest portion of the original Studio Arts complex, which housed the Grant Wood Studio, because it was deemed as a historic structure by FEMA. The rest of the complex will be razed.

Demolition of the old Hancher Auditorium could happen this construction season, as UI officials expect to get formal obligation from FEMA for that demolition in the coming months, UI officials said.