The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, has approved renovations for two residence halls on the UI campus and the removal of a third.

The Board voted unanimously to spend $3.8 million to renovate Daum Residence Hall—the designated honors house on campus—and $5.7 million to reconstruct the Currier Steam Tunnel at Burge Hall.

The Board also voted to allow the university to abandon the Quadrangle Residence Hall; its demolition is necessary to make way for the new College of Pharmacy building.

The University of Iowa campus is in the midst of a historic transformation, with nearly $1.2 billion in construction projects recently completed or underway, a pace unprecedented in the university’s 166-year history. Recent residence hall building projects include Petersen Residence Hall, which opened to students for the fall 2015 semester, and updates to the Mayflower Residence Hall entry that addressed long-term flood risks.

Three additional UI residence hall projects aim to modernize student living space, make way for academic programming, and accommodate increasing enrollment.

Daum Hall

Daum Hall is slated for an interior makeover that will take place over the next three summers. UI Housing and Dining has followed a master plan of renovating residence halls on an ongoing basis over the past several years. This project will update drywall, veneer, paint, and flooring in student rooms and corridors on floors 1–8. Student rooms will also be fitted with new wire closet-shelving systems, acoustical ceilings, lighting, draperies, access panels, and towel bars. 

Each floor lounge will be upgraded with new doors, study rooms, roller shades, acoustical ceilings, and lighting. Elevator lobbies will be upgraded as well and emergency phones installed on floors 2–8.

The Daum Hall work will take place during summers only (2016–2018) with projected completion by July 2018. The estimated project cost is $3.8 million.

Daum was built in 1964 and was originally a women-only residence hall. Although the $1.77 million addition was often referred to as “Baby Burge,” it  was eventually named for Kate Daum, director of nutrition at UI Hospitals and Clinics and professor in the College of Medicine from 1926 until her death in 1955. Today, Daum Hall houses about 344 residents and is the only hall designated a quiet, honors house.

Quadrangle Hall

The razing of Quadrangle Hall, built in 1920, will begin in mid-summer 2016. The project is expected to take approximately four to five months and will make room for a new $68 million School of Pharmacy facility currently in the design process and slated to begin construction November 2016, with completion in fall 2020. The cost of the Quad's demolition will be $1 million.

In 1920, UI President Walter P. Jessup combined War Department funds with state money to build the Quadrangle dormitory. After opening, this facility became a model for residence life on campus. Known as the “birthplace of residence hall government,” Quadrangle in the 1920s and 1930s was largely self-governing, and its students often earned the highest GPAs on campus. Located on the West Campus, the dormitory houses about 360 students.

Madison Street Residence Hall

This new 12-story, 1,050-bed, $95 million east-side University of Iowa residence hall on Madison Street—under construction on the site of the old Iowa City Water Plant—is projected to be finished during the summer of 2017 and should open that fall. The building will include dining options, study lounges, a lobby and other public spaces, a fitness center, and laundry facilities. A bridge to the building from the T. Anne Cleary Walkway will allow ease of access for students, regardless of where they have classes. Floors will be assigned as part of the University’s Living–Learning Communities program, and most hall residents will have an attractive view of the Iowa River.