Hi Folks

I am sorry to report to you that the Lewis Hall Building project is now officially confirmed to be on hold. We have anticipated this outcome for several months but remained hopeful. Last Thursday morning the Lewis Hall working group met with Erin Doherty of Mithun and Ken Kubota from UW Capital Projects for a final review of the project status. On the bright side, the bids for the project are well under the budget. This means that all of the design elements and choices that have been reviewed and agreed to by the Building Committee can remain in the project budget. With this news, it is even more disappointing that we cannot begin the construction phase of this project.

The iSchool and the University will continue to pursue State funding for the Lewis Hall renovation and expansion and will also look for alternative means for supporting this project. At this time, we expect the project's hiatus to last at least two years. I remain optimistic and excited about the future for the iSchool in a renovated and rejuvenated Lewis Hall and I want you all to remain hopeful as well.

I would like to particularly thank the Lewis Hall Building Committee, for their hard work, ingenuity and enthusiasm in developing the building design. This committee has served our community well in developing a building that will truly reflect our highly collaborative culture and foster collegiality, inclusiveness, creativity, and innovation with style. I am also grateful to the Mithun team for their exceptional ability to reflect our community's needs and culture through creative architectural design. They have been a pleasure to get to know and work with and we hope to continue this relationship when the building project resumes.

As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Best wishes,

Harry