From its simple beginnings to its many roles afterward, the Wallace Road Office Building has served Iowa State for more than half a century.

Soon, however, its long and varied life will end.

The Wallace Road Office Building, also known as Duplex A, was constructed in the Old Richardson Court Association section of campus more than 50 years ago. Next month the building will be demolished in an effort to make room for the new Student Success Center.

Facilities planning and management architect Tom Oftedal said the selected contractor will mobilize on the second week of February with the goal of finishing its work and cleanup before the start of March.

After approving the building’s demolition last month, the Board of Regents must now approve the selection of a contractor in order for the demolition to proceed. Costs will be released after a contractor is chosen.

“There’s one chance out of a thousand that this doesn’t move through,” Oftedal said.

The low bid was $98,780 by McMains Excavation Demolition Asbestos of Moulton.

The last office to permanently occupy the space, the Child Development Laboratory School, moved out in 2000 because of space and accessibility issues — a long-standing issue with the building, said Lynn Seiler, associate director of facilities planning and management.

Duplex A was constructed in 1952 for the College of Home Economics. It functioned as a home management house along with the buildings now known as Fisher-Nickell and Andrews-Richards halls, he said.

Catherine Miller, a former resident of the home management house as an undergraduate and a former instructor at Iowa State, has seen the building through all of its phases.

“I saw it through the whole transition,” she said. “Back then, it was a requirement for all home economics graduates to live there for half a semester.”

Students cleaned, entertained and cooked food for each other on $1 per person, per day.

Before she was a student, Miller said babies were a part of the home management house program. In the early 1950s, college women at Iowa State raised a number of babies awaiting adoption.

Before moving into the Wallace Road Office Building in 1962, the Child Development Lab had been housed in facilities built for wartime use in both World War I and II. After being moved into the former home management house, the Child Development Lab hosted an all-day kindergarten, programs for talented and gifted children and one of the first after-school programs in the nation. But eventually, the lab’s space needs returned.

“I think the main issue of them moving out was the lack of good space and handicap accessibility,” Seiler said.

Miller agreed, saying that space for child development was a recurring problem.

“We were always on the list for a new building, and then the official numbers came by confirming our need of space,” she said. “Plus, it was always tough for our instructors having to go back and forth between the [Family and Consumer Sciences] college and the Child Development Building.”

The Child Development Lab moved to the Palmer Building in 2000, paving the way for a new set of occupants in the Wallace Road Office Building. During the renovation of Beardshear Hall, the Wallace Road Office Building was temporary office space for displaced workers. It was later taken over for 4-H Extension offices and storage.