Major facilities projects in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will provide updated, improved, and enlarged spaces for faculty and students to pursue their research, scholarship, and creative activity.
The new Health Sciences Academic Building is well underway and two renovation projects are anticipated to begin this summer. The Old Museum of Art Building will be completely renovated to become the new Dance Building. The west wing of the Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories will also be renovated.
Several other projects will also provide enhanced research capabilities.
“With generous support from our central administration and donors, we’re making substantial progress toward providing our talented researchers with the infrastructure they need to discover, explore, and create,” associate dean for research and infrastructure Joshua Weiner said.
Learn more about these ongoing and upcoming projects in CLAS.
Health Sciences Academic Building
The largest CLAS project is the state-of-the-art $249 million Health Sciences Academic Building (HSAB), which continues to be on schedule. The facility will be a hub for innovative teaching and learning, community outreach, clinical services, experiential learning, research, and more.
The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders is anticipated to move in summer 2025, with the Department of Health and Human Physiology moving in early 2026. The building will also be home to Carver College of Medicine's physical therapy and rehabilitation science program.
Substantial completion of the six-level building is anticipated in 2025, with final completion in summer 2026.
The new building will feature a rooftop adaptive play space for the child life, disabilities, and communication sciences and disorders programs. The food science and nutrition lab will be used for practicum courses in nutrition and health.
The building will also have research labs to support clinical and basic science research, student-centered anatomy and exercise teaching labs, health testing services for the community, as well as sales and podcasting experiential learning spaces in sports and recreation management.
You can follow construction progress by watching the project’s webcam.
Dance Building
A $12 million renovation will provide the Department of Dance with a new home in the building on the west bank that previously housed the University of Iowa Museum of Art.
The department has long occupied Halsey Hall, which was built in 1915 and named after Elizabeth Halsey, who pioneered women’s collegiate sports and recreation at Iowa. While the building provides large studios for dancers, it has no central HVAC and lacks an elevator.
The renovation will provide dancers with five stunning high-tech studios, plentiful warm-up and gathering spaces, a student lounge and activity area, a digital projects lab, a motion capture studio, and an integrated office suite for faculty and departmental personnel.
Work on the building—temporarily called Performing Arts Annex but soon to be renamed Dance Building—will begin this summer and is scheduled to be completed summer 2026.
Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories
The growing Department of Computer Science will find a new home in the Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories (IATL) as part of a $25 million project to renovate the west wing and to build an addition that was originally intended but never completed.
The department is currently located in MacLean Hall, which was built in 1912 and lacks the necessary technological infrastructure and modern finishings.
Without altering the attached stone laboratory building that is home to several prominent CLAS researchers in the Departments of Chemistry and Physics and Astronomy, this renovation and addition will provide computer science faculty and students with new classrooms, offices, laboratories, and maker spaces with state-of-the-art technological infrastructure needed.
The design phase is progressing, and construction will begin this summer with completion in summer 2027.
Additional projects
Several other efforts will also provide enhanced research spaces for CLAS faculty and students.
Renovation of the top floor of Van Allen Hall into a space science facility will be completed in February.
Funded by UI central administration with equipment provided by a grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, this new facility will provide the scientific infrastructure necessary to support large NASA missions such as TRACERS, which is scheduled to launch a SpaceX rocket later this year.
With the formation of the new School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability comes the need to house all of the research and scholarship of its faculty in the former Departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Geographical and Sustainability Sciences.
Funding from CLAS and generous alumni donors will be utilized to renovate significant portions of Trowbridge Hall to enhance its appearance, scientific infrastructure, and space efficiency.