Iowa City’s Senior Center will receive around $2.6 million in exterior repairs in the coming years.
The Iowa City City Council unanimously approved the project manual and cost estimate for the construction project at Tuesday night’s meeting, which will take place in two parts over the next two years.
A project manual is a document that describes what the construction project will entail, including aspects like technical specifications and instructions to future bidders. Located at 28 S. Linn St., the Senior Center is a community facility that offers several programs and services that are aimed toward older adults in the community, as stated on the city’s website.
According to the meeting’s agenda, the project will consist of the repair, restoration, and reconstruction of the building’s parapets, which is a railing around the roof, the roofing system, windows, and doors.
The need for this project was determined by two different studies of the exterior, which took place in March and December 2022.
The work for the project will be divided into two parts for financing purposes, the agenda states.
The first portion will include the repair of exterior limestone, parapets, and the roofing system and will cost an estimated $1.91 million.
Peter Franks, a project consultant from The Franks Design Group, said at the meeting that the parapets have moved so much that they are almost a safety concern. Water has also infiltrated the ceiling, he said.
This portion will be contracted out in late November and will be completed in December 2024.
The second portion of the project will replace existing windows and exterior doors, restore historic wood elements of the windows, and repair external painting. It will cost an estimated $700,000 and is expected to be completed by Summer 2025.
According to the agenda, the Senior Center served as a post office from its construction in 1904 until 1975. A few years later, the city purchased the building and turned it into the Senior Center from 1979 to 1981, Franks said.
Franks said the Senior Center last had renovations to its roof in 2010.