Lake LaVerne improvements are slated for summer

Following nearly four years of information gathering, study and planning, work to drain and dredge Lake LaVerne will begin next summer. Approved earlier this fall by President Wendy Wintersteen, the project would begin in mid-May and wrap up next fall.

As proposed, the project also would:

• Reshape the lake shoreline and stabilize it using two strategies: overlapping limestone slabs and native grasses and perennials.
• On the north side of the lake, adjust the shoreline to create space for additional seating and a second walkway that provides an accessible route to the water's edge.
• In the southeast corner, also modify the shoreline to create additional space for a hard-surface plaza that could be used both by visitors to the lake and the campus team that cleans and maintains the lake.
• Along the south shore, refresh the existing path with new gravel and add seating with a view to the campanile and central campus.

A combination of private funds and university funds identified by Wintersteen will pay for this renovation work, estimated at $2 million. 

Drawing people to the lake

As part of a class project in their studio course last spring, design studies undergraduates recommended several features that would bring people to the lake. Similar ideas were frequent suggestions in an April public survey that asked the campus community to share ideas and preferences for a better Lake LaVerne (see sidebar). If additional private funds are raised, other proposed enhancements could include a north-south bridge across the western part of the lake and an outdoor amphitheater and small outdoor classroom overlooking the south shore.

"The base project takes care of the lake. The additional enhancements would respond to how people have told us they would like to interact with it," said campus planner Chris Strawhacker, real estate and capital planning. He's a member of the planning team that includes staff and faculty as well as landscape architects and engineers from the Shive-Hattery firm.

Deeper water is the goal

Strawhacker said the top priority of the project is to restore the depth and volume of the water in Lake LaVerne to better manage water quality and nutrients. Removing as much as seven feet of sediment -- a soft, pudding-like material that built up on the lake bottom over decades -- is the first step. 

Currently, the deepest parts of the lake are about 5.5 feet, with a mean depth of 2.8 feet. Following dredging, planting and refilling the lake, Strawhacker said the goal is to achieve depths as great as 12 feet and a mean depth of about 5 feet, similar to water depths following the lake's reconstruction in the 1930s. While the lake has been dredged at least three times in its 110-year history, that was the last time the process involved draining the water.

A unique challenge for the project is refilling the lake when the renovation is completed. The lake isn't fed by an underground spring or even College Creek, which is how it originated in 1916. Lake LaVerne relies on rain and snow, a well near the southwest corner and a small amount of roof runoff from two adjacent buildings, Simon Estes Music Hall and the Memorial Union, for its water.

There will be swans

Strawhacker said a mute swan duo, known by generations of Iowa Staters as Lancelot and Elaine, will return once the basic lake improvements are completed. Future enhancements could be completed without disturbing the swans, he said. 

There haven't been swans at Lake LaVerne since November 2022, when Elaine retired. Lancelot had died of natural causes five months earlier.

Related stories

• Survey results will influence Lake LaVerne redevelopment, April 17, 2025
• Planning begins to improve Lake LaVerne, April 25, 2024
• Mute swan Elaine is retiring from Lake LaVerne, Nov. 17, 2022
• A very good reason Lake LaVerne looks a bit soupy, Aug. 25, 2022