The Levitt Center for University Advancement stands in a prominent position on a rise in the campus of the University of Iowa, visible from much of the city, particularly at night. Clad in white metal panels, glass block, and Indiana limestone, is an asymmetrical assemblage of geometric forms that articulate the various functions within the building. In a reversal of the usual hierarchy of space the public rooms are on the top floors with views of the river and surrounding campus.

Here office floors act as a pedestal for major public spaces that overview the campus, river, and park. The 5-storey rotunda, the exterior of which marks a visual and lateral edge of the university’s Performing Arts Campus, anchors the complex and acts as its main public meeting and circulation space. Inside the rotunda, the 3-storey interior of the rotunda is a ‘vertical lobby’ encircled by a curvaceous stair linked to cantilevered bridges creates a processional path to the public spaces above.

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