The Levitt Center for University Advancement

WHAT AND WHERE

The UI Foundation and the UI Alumni Association have moved into an attractive, functional, and much-needed new building, located at the corner of Park Road and North Riverside Drive in Iowa City, just northwest of Hancher Auditorium. Named for two of the UI's most generous benefactors, the Richard S. and Jeanne S. Levitt Center for University Advancement houses the Foundation, the Alumni Association, and the UI Division of Alumni Records and Services.

The Levitt Center provides a central location for many of the University's advancement-related activities. These include fund raising, alumni communications, and outreach; and events related to student recruitment, public relations, economic development, legislative liaison, and more. These new facilities ensure that the University "puts its best foot forward" to encourage the interest, involvement, and support of UI alumni and friends.

Additional space also is necessary to accommodate growth of Foundation and Alumni Association programs and staff. These units and their nearly 250 full-time, part-time, and student employees had been housed in the Alumni Center since 1976. In the past 20 years, the number of Foundation staff alone has increased five-fold; additional growth is anticipated in the years ahead, as the need for private support and development services by UI colleges, departments, and other units continues to grow.

OTHER UI BENEFITS

In addition to helping the UI Foundation and the UI Alumni Association enhance their services, the Levitt Center project benefits the University in other important ways.

The departure of the Foundation and the Alumni Association from the Alumni Center has provided for a badly needed expansion of the UI Museum of Art. In freeing up space for the Museum of Art and creating additional space to meet the advancement needs of other University programs, the Levitt Center for University Advancement is providing the UI with two "new" facilities--at minimal cost to the University.

HOW WAS IT FUNDED?

The Levitt Center has been funded entirely by private gifts. The UI Foundation leases the facility from the University, and the lease payments will be used to retire revenue bonds issued by the State Board of Regents, which will pay $12 million of the $18 million construction costs.

In addition to the more than $2.5 million pledged to the project by Dick and Jeanne Levitt, generous commitments were made by other members of the UI Foundation board of directors; and fund raising for the Levitt Center is nearing completion. There are many opportunities for facilities and areas in the Levitt Center to be named in honor of contributors, family members, or colleagues.

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

The Levitt Center has been designed by a world-class architectural team, led by Charles Gwathmey of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates of New York and William Anderson of Brooks Borg Skiles Architecture Engineering of Des Moines.

The 112,000-square-foot structure consists of four levels of office and meeting space (a plaza level and three upper floors), topped by a fifth level devoted to large meeting and entertainment spaces. A glass-walled rotunda on the building's southeast corner (on the Hancher entry drive off Park Road) serves as the public entryway on both the plaza level and first floor above.

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WANT TO KNOW MORE?

For additional information about the Levitt Center for University Advancement, contact Helen Dailey, Director, Operations and Facilities.

A policies and procedures manual concerning the use and operation of the Levitt Center is available in an Adobe Acrobat format.