Written by Anne Krapfl, Inside Iowa State
For the second time in seven years, the university will empty an academic building to complete a major renovation. The last employees are scheduled to move out of the College of Engineering’s Marston Hall the first week in August, and interior demolition could begin by the middle of that month.
Snedecor Hall, home to the statistics department, emptied in December 2007 and reopened in May 2009. It was the university’s most recent major renovation of an entire building.
In February, the state Board of Regents gave the final green light to a $24.1 million renovation of Marston. The cost will be split between university funds ($15.9 million) and private gifts ($8.2 million). Marston was completed in 1903. In the new Marston Hall, the two lower floors will be reserved for high-traffic uses such as classrooms, student services and a welcome center for visitors, prospective students and their families. The college’s administrative units, including the dean’s office, will move to the upper two floors.
Most Marston tenants are moving to the Memorial Union or to spaces created this month either by the opening of Sukup and Elings halls for the agricultural and biosystems engineering department, or the ISU Research Foundation’s move from Lab of Mechanics to the State Avenue office building.
Project manager Kerry Dixon estimates that employees will move back to Marston during spring semester 2016. Employees will take their current phone numbers to their new locations.
Who’s moving where
To assure smooth operation during the graduation and freshman orientation seasons, the college’s student services staff moved in April to a second floor suite in Howe Hall previously used by the Center for Industrial Research and Service. The moves will resume next week and continue into early August.
Dixon said the construction fence will go up around Marston Hall on Aug. 11 and extend west to the water tower.
View the full list of moving dates and new locations here.