One of the University of Northern Iowa’s most iconic buildings and center for student activity is looking to get a facelift.

It was recently announced that the rooftop plaza of Maucker Union will be redesigned due to part of the roof membrane underneath the walkable roof needing to be replaced. In order to be more cost effective, the university is looking to lessen the footprint of what would need to be replaced of the walkable roof, while also adding some additional features that students may be interested in using.

“What we’re looking at is the programmatic ideas that our university students would enjoy seeing,” Mike Bobeldyk, Director of Student Involvement and Event Services, said. “This is an area that I think a lot of people would say has tremendous untapped potential.”

In order to gain some ideas from students on what features they would like to see on top of the roof of Maucker Union, the university gained feedback from students in a variety of ways.

On Thursday, April 11 and on Friday, April 12 the architectural consultant that the university is working with conducted a series of interviews with Bobeldyk’s department staff, and with 16 or 17 prominent leaders of student organizations.

Also on Friday, April 12 in the Coffeehouse of Maucker Union, a focus group session was held for student leaders and those in the UNI community to engage in conversation and provide their input for what they would like the plaza space to look like in the future. Over 200 people participated in this process.

Another way the university tried to gain feedback on what to do with the rooftop plaza of Maucker Union was by sending out a poll through Inside UNI to the entire UNI community to gain feedback. The poll consisted of a series of six questions asking what spaces, amenities, activities people would like to see on the newly designed rooftop plaza. This poll closed on Friday, April 19.

The consultants have taken all of the information gathered from various members in the UNI community and they will use that information to start planning what the rooftop plaza will look like in the future. Some of the feedback from students and those in the community included wanting some shade structure as well as softening the space with some plantings or turf so the roof plaza is not just all concrete.

Bobeldyk mentioned that the various ways in which the university and his department gained feedback from the UNI community is customary when it comes to thinking about projects for students.

“Whenever we do projects here, we know it’s important to get student feedback. So really this isn’t our building, this is your building. I think it’s really important that we understand the students and where they see the needs and deficiencies, or what they like in different areas and how we might either enhance them or change them,” Bobeldyk said.

The idea of a walkable rooftop was one of the main reasons Maucker Union was built. Before Maucker Union was built in 1969, the area where the building stands today was originally the inter- section of two heavily trafficked sidewalks. When the building was built, the goal was to have the rooftop act as a sidewalk for students.

The university also wanted the building to be a lower height compared to other buildings in order to not block any of the views of the other buildings on campus. The rooftop on top of Maucker Union today was replaced in the early 1990s along with some patchwork completed throughout the years.

The renovation to the rooftop would be one of the biggest renovations to Maucker Union since the eastern half
of the building was added in the early 2000s. This addition in the early 2000s included the food court, Center for Multicultural Education, Student Involvement offices and the underground tunnel that connects to Lang Hall.

Representatives from the university are looking forward to how this renovation will enhance Maucker Union and UNI as a whole.

“I think our biggest goal is how we might be able to take a space like this and create it into an area that people want to meet. The hope is that it can attract those who just want to find a space to be alone and do their thing, or have a group of people gathering for lunch or maybe taking in an event.” Bobeldyk said. “I think it has great opportunities to do just that because of the location of the space, but we have to be able to then program it in such a way that people want to go there.”

Bobeldyk emphasized that as the university goes through this process, they will continue to involve students as much as possible.