Two campus facilities will soon be getting a new look because of a grant from the state legislature.

The Iowa General Assembly allocated $14 million for renovations in LeBaron and Physics halls. While many of the details have yet to be worked out, administrators do know the money will be used for new construction, remodeling and equipment updates.

Plans call for the construction to take place in an auditorium, two lecture halls and various other classrooms.

The rooms being updated “have been used by generations of ISU students and are old and outdated and need modernization,” ISU President Gregory Geoffroy said.

The money for the project was given through the Legislature’s capital program, which allows each of the Regents universities the opportunity to annually request money for construction and equipment projects, which is then distributed based on need and availability of funds.

Lynn Seiler, director of facilities planning and management, said the renovation was at the top of Iowa State’s request list.

“[The Legislature] has to judge which project is the highest priority,” he said. “If the state doesn’t have the money, we often wait.”

Seiler said this project was important to the university. “Everybody recognizes we are short of high quality classrooms with high tech features, so it’s a high priority project to a lot of people,” he said.

Geoffroy agreed, saying quality surroundings are necessary for successful learning.

“What is important is to be sure that our classes, particularly these large classes that serve lots of students, have a good learning environment and are modern and up-to-date as far as the technology and things you need in a modern classroom,” Geoffroy said.

The funds will be allocated to the university over a three-year period, which fits right into Iowa State’s plans. Iowa State has 230 classrooms and 13 auditoriums, most of which Seiler said are filled or overused.

Therefore, the university must take on each project one at a time, so as not to take away too much seating from students at any one time.

Seiler said the top construction priorities are for the biggest rooms, being the auditorium in LeBaron and two lecture halls in Physics, rooms 3 and 5.

The LeBaron auditorium holds about 250 students and the university is considering tearing it down and replacing it with a new, 400-seat facility.

Plans call for remodeling in the Physics lecture halls. One of those halls can hold about 100, and the other about 260.

“The essential problem [with the Physics lecture halls] is creakiness,” said Douglas Finnemore, a recently retired distinguished professor of physics and astronomy who taught in the rooms for about 40 years. “If you have a wooden floor and get 250 students moving around, the noise level is significant.”

Finnemore said the seats in the rooms were placed in 1922, and the only way they have been improved is by an added piece of rounded plywood on the back of each chair, so the seats don’t tear the students’ shirts.

Specific improvements in other rooms are still under negotiation. Seiler said the university will put together committees made up of faculty, administrators and students to decide what work is most needed.

“The idea is to get all the stakeholders involved when trying to make those decisions,” he said.

To find student representatives, Seiler said he wants to contact the Government of the Student Body and the Graduate Student Senate and have them make recommendations.

“[The students are] certainly a good representative of how the classes are doing and they give us a different angle than the faculty does,” Seiler said.