(Radio Iowa) – The final tenants of the iconic Wallace Building across from the state capitol are in the process of moving out and the building will eventually be demolished. Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig held a “goodbye party” for current and former employees at the end of last week. Naig says the building went into service in 1978, the same year he was born. “I sort of laugh every time I heard about the maybe somebody talking about the state of the Wallace Building, maybe not being quite up to up to snuff and old and and out of date. And I thought, well, that, that that maybe I feel that way too sometimes,” Naig says. Naig is one of five Ag Secretaries who worked in the building. The others are Bob Lounsberry from 1973 to 1987, Dale Cochran from 1987 to 1999 , Patty Judge from 1999 to 2007, and Bill Northy from 2007 to 2018.

Naig says the Wallace Building has had a lot of internal issues with its structure and operating systems, but it is one of the most photographed buildings in the state because of the reflection of the state capitol on the mirrored windows that span the south side. Former Ag Secretary Patty Judge was at the goodbye party and says the building’s issues were apparent right away. “When I came here the first day, we started finding all of the problems, all the things that were wrong with this building. My gosh, we couldn’t keep the bathrooms open,” Judge says. Judge says some people don’t want to see the building go, but she says it isn’t worth it to keep it open. “The money that was spent with maintenance and repair and then the back end starts falling off and we can’t park back there anymore and my gosh,” she says. “For those who think this is a criminal act to not be in this building and support this building any longer, believe me, I’m on the other side.”

Wallace Building

Retired state climatologist Harry Hillaker was a part of the Ag Department, but says he was at the National Weather Service Office until moving to the Wallace Building in 2003. “Actually had an office, not too many people had their own office in this building. It’s like, wow, I was more privileged than I was expecting to be,” Hillaker says. “It was very good working here because it was actually the only time was with the rest of the department.” Hillaker says the climate in the Wallace Building was different. “It was definitely on the warm side, especially in the wintertime in the building, which you think would be the other way around, at least down where I was in the basement,” Hillaker says. “People always made a joke though that my office had no windows, which seemed like a weird thing for a weather guy, but I was very happy to have an office.”

The Ag Department will be out of the building by the end of the month. The spokesperson for Governor Kim Reynolds in a statement says “the Iowa Department of Administrative Services (DAS) has initiated the process to demolish the Wallace Building without selling or otherwise disposing of the underlying land which requires the approval of the legislature.” The Wallace Building was named for Henry A. Wallace, the founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred and President Franklin Roosevelt’s first Secretary of Agriculture. He served one term as Roosevelt’s vice president.