Caution: Building Rising
By Travis Nuckolls
Since the beginning of the school year, there has been a giant hole in the ground directly in front of the Art and Design Building.
Only now is it finally starting to look like a structure with some purpose. What you are seeing is the beginning of the new Engineering Building.
The building is a welcome addition to the SIUE campus because of the rising number of students enrolled in engineering programs. In 1968 there were only two programs available in the School of Engineering and only 30 students. Now there are seven undergraduate programs and four graduate programs, with a student body of 750. Officials expect to add more engineering programs.
The idea of adding an engineering building has been floating around administrative offices for nearly 10 years. Work on designs and preparing bidding specifications as well as actually selecting the contractor took more than 18 months.
The design was finalized in March. Construction began in June and the building is scheduled to be finished by spring 2000 with classes being held there in the fall of that year.
The estimated cost is just over $28 million for the 60,000-square-foot building. This price tag includes equipment, construction, labor and fees. The building will meet all of the physical requirements for the school including classrooms, research laboratories, conference rooms and administrative offices. It will also have large areas for the display of decorative paintings and sculpture.
Among the specific types of labs are ones designed for civil engineering and construction and for mechanical and industrial and electrical engineering. Of course, there will be computer labs and also a robotics laboratory equipped with voice - and video-sensing robots.
An environmental laboratory will be used for graduate research in the areas of water and wastewater analysis.
An asphalt lab and a concrete lab will let students study the composition and properties of building materials .
The design was prepared by FGM Architects. The general contractor is Williams Brothers of Peoria.
Campus architect Tom Cahoon with Facilities Management is overseeing the project.
Cahoon said the work is on schedule and, so far, no major problems have been encountered.
Color renderings of the building and more information are available at the Facilities Management Web site at http://www.siue.edu/Facilities. |