Iowa State’s campus planner, Chris Strawhacker from ISU Facilities Planning and Management (FPM), shared plans for the renovation of Lake Laverne, including student, faculty and staff input.
Strawhacker said the project is to dredge the lake and stabilize the shoreline.
“Basically, it’s a maintenance project,” Strawhacker said. “We’re going to clean up the silt and sediment that’s in the lake, keep it from eroding on the shorelines. That we know we need to do.”
Furthermore, Stawhacker said FPM did a study and they have the plans, but they are also looking for ideas from the Iowa State community.
“We have this survey open that we can get input from anybody on campus that wants to take the survey to tell us how they would like to use the lake, what they would like to be able to do at the lake, or what they would like the lake to look like [and] what kind of improvements we can add to the project,” Strawhacker said.
The link to take the survey is provided here. According to Strawhacker, it will be open until May 2.
“We want to make sure that people take the opportunity next week to get their input in,” Strawhacker said. “We’re going to take that input and fold it into the design press design process starting in May, after we analyze the results. So it’s a good chance for people to tell us how they interact with the lake, what they would like to see changed.”
Strawhacker said the goal is to have this project done by Fall of 2026.
The lake was built in 1917, and every 20 to 30 years, the lake has been dredged due to the issues with sedimentation, algae growth and water quality concerns, according to Strawhacker.
“It always has an algae bloom on it periodically through the year because of the high nutrient loads in the lake,” Strawhacker said. “So we wanted to work to address those issues.”
Strawhacker said they plan to bring iconic Lake Laverne swans back after the renovation.
“We’ve been waiting for that work to be complete so that we didn’t introduce swans and then move them again while we do construction,” Strawhacker said.
For more information, visit this website.
