Major construction projects in and around MacKay Hall are now finished or nearing completion, including the newly-updated LeBaron Hall auditorium.

LeBaron Hall’s new $5.9 million auditorium debuted in time for the beginning of fall classes, but it was a challenge, said Dave Miller, director of facilities and utilities for facilities planning and management.

“The seats were brought in on Friday and people worked throughout the weekend to get ready for classes on Monday,” he said.

The seating in LeBaron Hall is a new feature at Iowa State. Every other row has chairs that spin on pedestals so students can interact more with each other during classes. The arrangement is termed “jury seating.”

Mark Stephenson, manager of construction projects for facilities planning and management, said the seating was a feature that professors requested.

“So far they have been well received by professors,” he said.

Dean McCormick, assistant director of construction services for facilities planning and management, said the interior and remodeling work was completed on schedule.

“Now, all we are doing is touch-up work and making sure that it doesn’t interrupt classes,” he said.

Christopher Ahoy, associate vice president for facilities planning and management, however, said there may be a problem with where to put classes while renovations are being done on certain buildings. He predicts that class sizes will go down and be spread out around the university.

Since the main interior work in LeBaron Hall is now complete, the focus has shifted to exterior improvements.

“We had a lot of rain and that delayed the exterior work but it should be completed in the next couple of weeks,” McCormick said.

As for other building improvements, delays have slowed work on MacKay Hall, where sidewalks and steps leading to the entryways of the building are being redone because of accessibility and general maintenance issues. Construction on the roof was finished recently.

“The MacKay project has been ongoing for a month and we completed work necessary to get the east and west sidewalks open,” McCormick said.

Completion of the north entryways to MacKay Hall has been delayed because of the granite suppliers’ shortage of materials, Miller said.

“We delayed the start of the project so that the building entrances wouldn’t be unnecessarily closed down,” Stephenson said.

McCormick said the granite delays are simple supply and demand issues, and suppliers are subject to supply shortages depending on what they are quarrying for.

Though delayed, the north entrances are now under construction.

Physics Hall also received an interior makeover. Rooms 3 and 5 were redone after remaining unchanged for 80 years.

“The Physics auditoriums were finished about three weeks ahead of schedule and are in good shape,” McCormick said.