University of Iowa Alpha Chi Omega house damaged by tornado

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by exlurker

The Alpha Chi Omegas at Iowa have broken ground for a new house to replace the one destroyed by a tornado:

http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pb.../70413003/1079

exlurker, thanks for the update. Below is the link to the chapter's rebuilding effort.

Construction for the new house should begin in late May, completed in the summer 2008, and girls will move in that fall, Grady [rebuilding project manager] said.

The project will cost about $4 million, she said, and they are in the middle of a fundraising effort. She said people can support the project by visiting AXO Sigma Rebuild.

[susan314]

Does anyone have a link to a photo of the original house before the storm hit? It sounds like a beautiful home (and looks like it was too - from what you can envision from the storm damage photos). I was just curious to see a photo of the home in its original condition. The 4 story deck sounds awesome!

Glad to hear that they will be constructing another home soon. Although it won't completely erase the sadness of losing the old house, soon there will be many new memories developed in the new one.

[banditone]

there site has like a billion pics.... none of their house tho

[susan314]

Originally Posted by banditone

there site has like a billion pics.... none of their house tho

Yeah, I noticed - I did find a few older pictures of the house via a Google search, but none that included a view of the 4 story deck. (And one of the photos I saw was from 1927, and the house didn't look as big then...perhaps there had been an addition over the years?)

[ISUKappa]

A few from the chapter website, but no good full shots of the house:




The deck was on the back of the house and, from what I remember, kind of stacked to where there was one deck and then stairs up to the deck on the next floor, etc... The decks were maybe 10x12? Maybe a little larger? I don't remember exactly. They probably had added on at some point, I believe most of the chapter houses at Iowa had additions to them due to growth in the 80s.