Join us on Laying the Foundation as we explore the recent renovation of the Iowa Veteran Education, Transition, and Support (IVETS) department at the University of Iowa. We sit down with architectural designer Anna to discuss the project's journey, from its historical context within Calvin Hall to the impact of funding from the Scanlan Center Foundation. We delve into how the design addresses the unique needs of veteran and military-connected students, creating a welcoming and supportive environment. Discover the key features of the renovated space and how it supports IVETS' mission to empower student veterans.
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Episode Transcript
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(Skyler): Welcome to another episode of Laying the Foundation. Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Laying the Foundation podcast. My name is Skyler. You probably recognize me from previous episodes of the Laying the Foundation podcast. and joining me today is Anna Bednarko. Did I say that right?
(Anna): Yes.
(Skyler): Okay, perfect. and Anna, you've been on a previous episode before, where we talked about office culture.
(Anna): That's right.
(Skyler): Yes, that was a long time ago, but we're back again.
(Skyler): Glad to have you back. this time you're going to be talking to us about the Ives, project over at UI, University of Iowa. So first things first, just so that the people listening can get an idea if they don't know about this project. I didn't know about this project until it got mentioned to me about you guys working on it and stuff. So tell me a little bit about what the IVET space is and then where on campus it's located and any other elements of significance that you can think of there.
(Anna): Okay. yeah, so right now, the IBET department, they are currently occupying Calvin Hall. It's just north of the Pendulum, kind of where the old state capital used to be.
(Skyler): Oh, awesome.
(Anna): And so that's off Jefferson Street in Iowa City, I believe. They've been in the space for a while, but I've kind of jumped around campus and now this is their home. A little bit of the history of the building, I guess. just kind of the start. It's actually kind of really an interesting story. you can Google Calvin Hall on the University of Iowa's website and find a variety of different videos, and images of the. Some of the stuff that was done for this building. So the building was built in 1885. it was originally on the Pente Crest. And then in 1905, they decided to relocate it. they wanted more, more of a neoclassical style of architecture in their Pente Crest. Just kind of like the old state capitol. So they actually lifted this building up?
(Skyler): What?
(Anna): Yes. Lifted the building up on logs and then had horses and a bunch of men, bring it all the way across the street.
(Skyler): Wow.
(Anna): They turned the building 180 degrees.
(Skyler): Interesting. Wow. To think that you could do that back. I mean, back in the day, like, even today, the idea of picking up a whole building seems not possible. But the fact that they were able to do that back then, that's insane.
(Anna): Yeah. Super crazy. So, yeah, again, you can look on the University of Iowa's website. There's videos and pictures. there's even A plaque downstairs on the main floor, the first floor, as you enter on the south side. But yeah, some interesting photos and pictures of all of this crazy move. Another kind of fun fact that I had learned while reading that was that they still held classes during this building relocation. Really, really crazy to think, like nowadays that's a huge liability. No one would want to have students during construction if you're moving an entire building. But that's just kind of a fun fact that I learned.
(Skyler): Wow. Those students really taking risk going to class at that time.
(Anna): Yeah. Crazy.
(Skyler): Wow. That's amazing. That's insane. That's wild to think about.
(Anna): Yeah. So, I guess I'm kind of jumping around. I know.
(Skyler): Oh, yeah, you're fine.
(Anna): So I guess the University of Iowa contacted us. it sounds what I've heard from Kent Lutz in our office as we've worked with Ibe Betts before. And again, like I've said, they've been around campus just in various areas, and then finally landed in Calvin Hall. we were contacted by the College of Ed.
(Skyler): Okay.
(Anna): College of Education. So the Scanlan Center Foundation, their private foundation, they support the College of Education, and then also the school mental health. We've done a variety of different projects that have been funded by them. but what started this was they had given a donation to the I-VETS department to provide a space for their students.
(Skyler): Yeah.
(Anna): So what I know about the Scanlan family is that they try to donate their donations. They want to again, support veterans and their families and also support mental health. So that was something that is, I think that's why they decided to, provide some donations to them.
(Skyler): Gotcha. And then, so for its. What exactly do they do? What is that kind of department for? Or what is kind of their goal or purpose?
(Anna): So their goal is really just to provide like a strong learning environment, for their veterans, have a space for them to interact
(Anna): with their peers and faculty and then just provide any support that they need just to have more, student focused spaces. So if they're studying and going along in their college career, just helping them, with anything they can. So that's kind of what this renovation started as, is how can we create an environment that helps support their goal?
(Skyler): Yeah, that makes sense. And then, so you have the Scanlan center, which kind of put forth some of the money needed to renovate the space. and then that's kind of where we came into play. Right. They reached out to us because we had worked with them previously and said, hey, we want you guys to take this space and turn it into a perfect space for our IVET program. What was the space kind of like before we obviously started putting the construction into place and such like that. Like what were you looking at when this project kind of began?
(Anna): So when we got into the space, it didn't look like there had been a lot of renovation. it's still the plaster and left walls. it looked like a lot of the existing features may had, you know, still where present. Maybe just a touch up a paint or you know, change of paint color in a lot of say how say this correctly. I'm trying to think of, when I think the last renovation project in this space was like in the 90s, maybe early 2000s. So.
(Skyler): Wow. Okay.
(Anna): It hasn't seen any love in a while. I'll say.
(Skyler): Yeah, like 25 to 30 years. That's a long time.
(Anna): Yes. And I think, again, this is an older building and sometimes older buildings on campus, you know, there are other spaces that take priority, just if there's something that isn't functioning correctly, like maintenance wise, they focus on those projects. But I think it was time for this space to have a little love. So, walking into the space. So as you walk into the building, and you go up the lobby stairs to the second floor. so the second floor is all where the I-VET department is located. When you walk to the north on the east side is, was a classroom. so it sounded like they utilized that as a classroom, but also kind of more of a lounge space. And the other space that we renovated. So this is gonna be a little difficult for me to describe, I guess, without having a plan, but maybe we can put a plan up. I don't know. There used to be a hallway that snaked from the classroom to another corridor to the north. And then you could get to another classroom area that had two small study spaces. So it was an interesting, I guess, challenge for us to look at too, to see how can we get rid of this corridor and provide more of a space that you can, can connect the. An academic hub is what they wanted to call it. Just a space for students to come and study and have two study rooms and then have a lounge space where they can hang out, they can watch movies. the donor, as I mentioned earlier, had donated funds. They had also donated like an ice cream cooler. They donated a popcorn machine. So again, just trying to create like more of a home lounge space for the Ah, veterans that are students at. At the college.
(Skyler): Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. I know I would have loved to hang out in a spot with a, I. Ice cream cooler and a popcorn machine. That sounds great.
(Anna): Oh, yeah, they were still doing a lot of this when we were, like, walking through the space. But I think, yeah, the college really wanted to try to connect these two spaces so they can kind of. If they did have an event, they could. If it was full in one room, they could kind of spill over into the other. Just trying to connect those rooms and really make it more of a holistic.
(Skyler): Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what was the full kind of scope of this. This renovation? What all were they expecting or hoping to create with this project?
(Anna): So, like I said, they were trying to combine the two spaces together additionally. So, again, so it hadn't seen a renovation since the early 2000s. So one thing that really wasn't thought of way back in the day is just like, acoustics o y and sound transferred. so a lot of the work that we did was reworking some of the duct work, so then the sound transfer was not as prevalent. And then
(Anna): also providing individual study rooms that they could either use as counseling if they needed to, or again, just studying, providing an update to, ceilings, light fixtures just to brighten up the space. Providing window shades that if they did want to lower them down, there wasn't a glare or anything on the tv. If they were presenting a movie or anything, an update to paint. Just making it fun, branding for them. And then also providing a variety of different furniture. So we've got some lounge. Again, in the lounge area, there's more like individual lounge chairs that people can go and study. There's a bank of seating. So if you did have a group and you wanted to sit down and talk about a project you're working on or any type of. Any type of topic. and then there's also, a TV and then a little couch area. So if they wanted to have a group movie or some sort of presentation, they could all sit together. And then in the lounge space, there's also the kitchenette that I had mentioned, where there's the popcorn, the ice cream, coffee machine, just anything that they would need. And then on the other side is more of the academic hub, is what we called it, more study focus. but again, variety of different furniture just for variety of different veterans, that are coming in just what they're comfortable. However, you know, everyone studies a little bit differently so and just providing them a variety of different spaces. a lot of the furniture in this space is flexible. So if they did want to have a class sign up to use that space, they could reconfigure that to actually house a class.
(Skyler): Awesome. So there's a lot of diversity that this space is able to contain both through, like you said, the furniture, the space itself and some of the amenities that are kind of put in there, for a very diverse set of needs, whether it be holding a class or whether it be using for studies or whether it be for events, like you said, like giving presentations or showing videos or whatever the case. Which is really cool to take kind of an older space and renovate it to that point where it can handle like so many different cool, new things.
(Anna): Yeah, I agree. It was it was a fun project to work on. also, just like looking at, like I said, there hasn't been a lot of work in this area or even in the building. So it was really interesting to kind of dig into the existing drawings and just see what this building has gone through. A lot of the drawings that we were referencing for this project were back from like the 1900s.
(Skyler): Like, wow, older.
(Anna): So it was really interesting just to see how this building was built and how can we preserve it to still have that historical look to again, additionally to provide all these additional nice new finishes. We also preserved a lot of the nice wood casings, around the doors, the Wayne Scott in the hallway and the like wood casing and sills around all the windows.
(Skyler): Yeah. So I suppose my next question would be, and you've kind of alluded to the idea, you know, obviously this is a very old building, and I know talking to a lot of our higher ed team, who oftentimes has to deal with these very old buildings from who knows how long ago, like decades and decades ago. What challenges did you guys run into along the way, working within a building that was so old, and hadn't been renovated for so long, and then trying to put all of this kind of more modern day amenities and modern day features into this I-VET space that would occupy inside of it.
(Anna): I would say so one in particular, since this is the older building, like you said, I think back in the day when they were, when they were just building, when finishes were put down, sometimes instead of removing them, that we just build on top.
(Skyler): Oh, okay.
(Anna): So like one thing in particular was there used to be appear that there used to be like, I think a vinyl Tile and then they put carpet over it. so after the UI thankfully has their own team and environmental services that does the removal of this. But they had to remove all of the asbestos o that was in the rooms. And so when they did that, it removed all of the floor leveling that was in there. So it was wood floorboards. And then it had removed all the leveling. So then we had to come back through and provide a sort of leveling. But during that time we didn't know how thick that floor leveling really was.
(Skyler): Right.
(Anna): So that was kind of a surprise to see. It was about like an inch and a half to two inches of floor leveling that had to be
(Anna): put down to provide the levels that we needed to have a consistent level floor between the two rooms, but also the existing spaces that we weren't touching.
(Skyler): Right.
(Anna): so that was kind of an interesting thing.
(Skyler): It's funny, it's always funny seeing people do things from like a, it's out of sight, out of mind perspective. But then we come along, and we have to actually, actually deal with it and we're like, I wish, I wish you would have done it differently from the get go. That would make things a lot easier.
(Anna): Yeah. So like we had planned for it in design but then when the work was actually done it was way more than we thought. So that was kind of a surprise. Some other things that had been done, they used to have a sprinkler system. And again I think just back in the day, before anyone had any standards of like how certain things were supposed to be done in renovations when you were re renovating a space and updating. There was a lot of abandoned sprinkler, piping above the ceiling that we found. so we originally were going to connect back to them, and it appeared that they were just capped off and the heads for all the sprinklers were still in the ceiling. So to our knowledge they were in working condition. And then as we found out after they started demo-ing that they had capped it off. So that was kind of an interesting little hiccup but able fig it out.
(Skyler): So situation of like, yeah, standards have definitely changed and it's kind of fun to go. I mean it's frustrating but also a little bit fun I'd imagine to go through these old buildings and be like, m. That's definitely not up to date. We gotta, gotta fix that.
(Anna): Yeah. Oh yeah. I guess additionally. So they had all of the rooms had suspended acoustical ceiling Tile. And after we removed them, and then again found out that the sprinkler system wasn't working. They had all of the crown molding still exposed. Like they had left it and just put a suspended ceiling in just to hide it because I think it was just deteriorating. So that was like an interesting find that they kept all the historical pieces and just decided, you know, it's a lot. It's probably more maintenance to try to fix and match that. Those pieces. So. And again, thinking about acoustics, that was just plaster and lac and painted wood. And so I think they were. Eventually, someone down the line was like, we should have acoustical ceiling tile instead. And then we don't have to worry about this. So.
(Skyler): Right. And then they just kind of covered it over with.
(Anna): Yeah. So that was just an interesting find as well.
(Skyler): Sure. Wow. That's. You know, that again, all these old buildings and the surprises that they hold inside is always kind of interesting to hear about. And I know a lot. just about everybody on the higher ed team has plenty of interesting stories about what they've found in these. These older buildings, for sure.
(Anna): Oh, yeah. I think. I mean, me personally, I think it's fun to do existing. Yeah. Just to have those fun, like, gotcha. Like, here's some things you didn't know about.
(Skyler): That's right.
(Anna): You get into it. It makes the job more fun and interesting, I think.
(Skyler): Absolutely. Lots of unexpected challenges that you have to try to solve. It's sort of like a big puzzle. And I mean, we say that with architecture in general is. It's always kind of like a big puzzle. Creating your floor plans with a limited amount of space and trying to fit rooms and spaces in them. but there's also the other side of the puzzle of now we have to get really technical about it, and we have to, overcome the challenges that kind of just appear along the way that you couldn't just expect or anything like that. There's no way to know until you start to dive into the project. And then you're like, oh, hey, look at this and this and this.
(Anna): Yeah. Oh, yeah.
(Skyler): So now that the project is complete, what, have we gotten some feedback from, the people, the clients from the team over at IVE in that department or the students that are using that space. Like, what have. What have we seen now that it's all completed?
(Anna): Yeah. So, I still keep in touch with the users, Matthew Miller and Tera Lam over there. And it sounds like they, the students love using the space. it's occupied almost every day. And they're really eager to collect the funds, of again potentially in the future, who knows? but to renovate the rest of the floor just so that it is fully renovated and everything matches. They have on the other side of the floor is a computer lab and then also office spaces. So I think their goal in the future is to renovate those spaces, just so then they can. It can all be a cohesive I ve. department on that second floor.
(Skyler): Wow, that would be amazing just to have, like, that whole floor to do all the different and necessary things that. Yeah. As your department would love to have. That'd be amazing.
(Anna): Yeah.
(Skyler): Awesome. Well, fantastic. Is there anything about this project that I miss that you really wanted to make sure was mentioned, or did we cover just about everything?
(Anna): I think we covered everything.
(Skyler): Okay.
(Anna): I. I was trying to not go too detailed into, like, the history of the billion and the Scalen Foundation, but, like, I don't know, that helps kind.
(Skyler): Of explain it to give it gives background to it, and I think it helps to kind of like, show the scope of the project a little bit better. I think it was great. And I think that the part of the history that you did talk about was a. Ah, very interesting. Moving an entire building and everything like that and obviously knowing how old this building is kind of a key piece to everything we're talking about up and throughout the rest of the episode. So. Awesome. Well, Anna, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to share with us about this incredible project. super amazing to have this resource on campus and to be able to offer so many different things to the veteran students that are going there. I think that's truly incredible. So thank you so much for telling us all about it.
(Anna): Yeah, no problem. Thanks, Skylar.
(Skyler): Absolutely. This has been another episode of the Laying the Foundation podcast. If you'd like to find out more about the Laying the Foundation podcast, you can head over to any podcast streaming platform such as Spotify, iTunes, Google podcasts and others. You can also find out more about CMBA Architects through social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Additionally, you can head over to the CNMBA website at cmbarchitects.com. if you're an architecture or design professional or an intern looking for an internship within those fields, please be sure to check out our website and click on the Careers tab to find out more about what opportunities we offer. This has been another episode of the Laying the Foundation podcast. We'll see you next time.
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March 6, 2025