By Madison Purvis
The University of Iowa plans to partially tear down long-standing Seashore Hall during winter break.
On April 21, the state Board of Regents approved the razing of a wing of the building to construct a new $33.5 million building for the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department.
Wendy Moorehead, the strategic communications manager for Facilities Management, said Seashore was built in 1899 and was designated a psychology space in 1930. Since then, no major renovations have been done in the building.
Preliminary work for the project started on Nov. 1, including a temporary closing of the sidewalk between Van Allen Hall and Seashore in order to extend utilities from Van Allen Hall to Spence Labs and eventually to the new facility.
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However, Moorehead said in an email, “the razing of the SE wing [of Seashore Hall] will most likely occur late Dec. or Jan. but could be later depending on how the utilities work progresses.”
Officials predict that the razing will take approximately five weeks to complete.
Moorehead said the demolition of the Seashore wing is necessary in order to start the construction of the new building and to extend the underground utilities to the parts of Seashore that remain.
The current estimation for completing construction of the new facility is August 2019. Once the building is occupied, the rest of Seashore will be demolished. Right now, officials estimate that the demolition will take place in the spring of 2020.