Nearly six miles away, Oakdale Hall stands apart from the rest of U. Iowa.

Undergoing many transformations since it was built in the early 1900s, it still sports porches from its start as a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients when the only known cure for the disease was fresh air and rest.

But Oakdale Hall’s more than 90-year history will soon come to an end.

While the building will likely not be torn down until 2011, programs and departments that call Oakdale Hall home are aiming to move into new locations by mid-September, including Humanities Iowa, the Center of Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, the Division of Drug Information Service, among others.

At the moment, some hallways in the aging facility are still bustling with activity, while others are completely void of people, littered with discarded folders and trash.

Oakdale Hall may not be the most up-to-date UI building, but people’s feelings about moving from the location remain mixed.

Jennifer Sherer, the director of the UI Labor Center, said there are pros and cons to moving to the BioVentures Center. While the center will be in a smaller space, the new offices will be much newer and in a more convenient location.

“It’s right off the interstate, and it will be easier for our students to find,” Sherer said.

While the Labor Center is still in the packing stages, she said the move has been fairly smooth so far.
But not all have had such an easy transition.

Stephan Arndt, the director of the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation, said the move to the “The Myriad Technology Plaza” in Coralville was somewhat chaotic, largely because of the amount of paperwork that had to be transferred.

“It was kind of overwhelming,” he said. “We had to go through 20 years worth of research files.”

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Moved in for about a month, Arndt said that while he ultimately understands the decision to tear down Oakdale Hall, he wishes the UI wouldn’t be so quick to demolish older buildings.

“I would have earmarked Oakdale Hall for destruction a little less cavalierly,” he said.

Some denizens of Oakdale Hall may miss it, but they will not miss the amount of upkeep needed, said Diane Machatka, associate director for space planning in Facilities Management’s office of planning, design, and construction.

Machakta has said the building would cost upwards of $45 million in deferred maintenance alone in the next year.

“We were happy to have Oakdale Hall,” she said, “I don’t think anyone is going to miss the aging mechanical systems.”

And though Arndt said he had a fondness for other buildings, he would not miss the radical variations in temperature that often plagued the building.

“I remember in Oakdale Hall sitting in my office and sweating,” he said. “It is nicer having a little more constant temperature.”

The state Board of Regents made the decision in March to raze Oakdale Hall. The timing of demolition coincides with the relocation of the UI Hygienic Lab to a new facility in the UI’s Coralville Research Park, which will leave around half of the space in Oakdale Hall empty, Machatka said.

At the time, the UI estimated the project would cost $3.8 million. Machatka said there is no new estimation at this time.

Oakdale Hall must be torn by June 2011 and the empty space will be seeded with grass and left available for future building projects.