(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Regents recently approved an increase of 32 percent in the budget for the CY-Town development on the Iowa State University campus. I-S-U’s Heather Paris presented the details of the project. “Phase one and two combined would build extensive underground infrastructure, completely replace all parking services, and raise the project site so future development would be five feet above Ioway Creeks’ 100 year floodplain,” she says. The project covers 40 acres of land between the Iowa State Center and Jack Trice Stadium and includes thousands of parking spots. “These lots are heavily used by students and visitors to Iowa State University. The existing parking lots have multiple maintenance issues and need replacement,” Paris says.

The athletic department and private giving would fund the nine-point-two million dollar increase, bringing the total budget to nearly 38 million dollars. The University of Northern Iowa was given permission to tear down the West Gym, which has been the home of several sports teams since it was built. U-N-I vice president Michael Hager, says they’ve determined it is not cost effective to renovate the structure. “The West Gym has served the university since 1925 and has served us quite well. However, the building is clearly telling us that it is at the end of its life cycle,” Hager says. He says the east and west exterior walls are bowing and separating from the structure.

” One has an intriguing S curve that seems to get the urgent attention of architects and structural engineers when they come and look at it,” he says. “Inside one can see those walls separating by as much as two inches from the flooring system, which is well outside the established standards of wall movement.” The building was shored up and all services moved out of it after the bowing walls were discovered. He says they don’t know yet what might go into its place on campus. “For now the basement will be taken out, the utilities we patched, and then it’ll become a green space,” Hager says. “It’s a critical building location, we’d want to be cautious about what we put in in the future. It’s on a an axis with the campanile, and so it would remain a high value building location at some point.”

It will cost between one-point-three and one-point-five million dollars to demolished the building. The wresting program had taken up a majority of the space in the West Gym in the last several years, and a new wrestling practice facility is planned.