Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

April 2, 2004

EOB demolition slated for July

by Anne Krapfl
The English Office Building, located between Beardshear and Carver halls and vacant since December, will be demolished in July. The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, approved plans for the project last June.

Project manager Kerry Dixon-Fox, facilities planning, estimated it will take two to three weeks to remove the building and grade the site. Landscaping will be a separate project, she said. The plan is to maintain the site as green space and improve the plaza between Beardshear and Carver halls.

Demolition work is expected to begin around July 1, after freshman orientation wraps up.

Dixon-Fox said sidewalks in the area will be closed during the demolition to protect pedestrians. These will include sidewalks on the south and east side of EOB and could include the sidewalk between Beardshear and EOB. The plaza west of EOB also may be off limits temporarily.

The "Office Building" was built in 1885 as offices for the university president, treasurer and secretary. It was scheduled to come down in 1905 to complete grading for the new building next door that we know as Beardshear Hall, but it remained. Over the years, it has been home to the bookstore, music department, part of the English department and International Education Services. It took its current name in 1940. Its most recent tenants, a dozen faculty in the College of Business, moved to the Gerdin Business Building in December.

Campus master plans dating back to the mid-1960s have slated the building for demolition. With 2,620 net usable square feet, the building does not meet fire and accessibility codes, and is vacant now.