CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - A Cedar Rapids hospital plans to demolish part of an historic building on campus after it sustained $400,000 in damage in the derecho that tore through Iowa in the summer.
UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital officials said Monday the damage to the Resource Center was too extensive to consider reinvesting in the structure, Cedar Rapids Gazette reported.
The building had “significant structural concerns, among other issues,” after the Aug. 10 storm, hospital officials said in a news release.
Demolition is expected to begin Oct. 26 and be completed by the end of the year.
Two wings of the Resource Center will be demolished. The top four floors of the third wing also will be demolished, but that wing’s lower level classrooms, auditorium and tunnel system to the main hospital will remain.
The original wing of the Resource Center was built in 1917 as the St. Luke’s Nursing Education Building. Since 1986, it has been used as office space.
All tenants were relocated after the derecho because the building no longer met fire codes, according to the news release.
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