Pound Hall at the University of NebraskaLincoln

University of Nebraska will raze 2 residence halls and dining facility

Jan. 3, 2017

The buildings on the Lincoln campus are more than 50 years old and renovation would be too costly.

The University of Nebraska Board of Regents has approved funding for the demolition of two residence halls and a dining center on the Lincoln campus.

The university says $7.3 million has been allocated for the razing of Cather Hall, Pound Hall and the Cather-Pound Dining Center, which were built in 1963. The work will begin in May 2017 and is expected to be completed by November 2018.

Cather and Pound are 13-story towers; the two-story dining center sits between them and connects the towers. Together, the three buildings have about 245,000 square feet.

In 2010, a study of Cather and Pound found facility deficiencies and recommended against renovation because of extremely high cost. Officials estimated that bringing Pound Hall up to current code and university building requirements would cost $22.7 million.

Since 2013 the university has opened two new suite-style halls—University Suites and Eastside Suites—as replacements for Cather and Pound.

The university also is building a new dining complex just east of the existing Cather/Pound complex to replace the razed dining space. It is scheduled to open in summer 2017.

Cather closed in 2014. It was originally scheduled to close in 2013, but remained open an additional year to accommodate larger-than-expected demand for on-campus housing. Pound Hall’s lifespan also has been extended and still has students living there.

Demolition of the dining center is expected to begin during the December 2017 winter break to minimize disruption to students. The two towers are tentatively slated to be imploded in May 2018.