Window Problems Plague New Children’s Hospital

Facility executives love few things more than opening a shiny new building as a demonstration of an organization’s financial health and expansion. Unfortunately, constructing a new facility and ensuring it operates as designed are two different — though related — challenges.

Just four years after University of Iowa Health Care (UIHC) opened its 14-story, $392.7 million Stead Family Children’s Hospital the hospital is asking to spend another $10-15 million to replace two floors of windows. In addition to cracking windows, hospital officials noticed window blemishes and delamination, according to The Cedar Rapids Gazette. If the Board of Regents approves replacing windows on two floors of the Children’s Hospital and on a connector bridge leading to the main UIHC campus, it will push the project’s total cost to more than $407 million.

That price includes consulting and assessments to determine which windows pose a risk and the cause of the deficiencies. It also includes temporary measures implemented to keep visitors safe, UIHC officials said. In 2019, the hospital closed its new Children's Hospital playground as a preventive measure and last summer installed a protective film over windows of concern.