Artist rendering of planned classroom building. Image provided by Illinois Wesleyan University.
BLOOMINGTON — As part of its $125 million Transforming Lives fundraising campaign, Illinois Wesleyan University plans to construct a 48,000 square-foot classroom building on its campus. The $16 million building will be located on the north end of the Eckley Quadrangle on the former site of Sheean Library, which was demolished over the summer.
Construction on the new building that will include a variety of different classrooms will start in about a month and be completed by the fall semester of 2013. “This new classroom facility will include 19 classrooms, ranging from small seminar rooms to larger classrooms,” said Matt Kurz, vice president of public relations for Illinois Wesleyan University. “Additionally, there will be a large case study room, study rooms and areas, an ed studies curriculum lab, an economics student research lab, conference rooms and 24 faculty offices for departments of business administration and economics.”
The exterior of the building will serve as a backdrop for commencement ceremonies.
“The building will anchor the north end of our Eckley Quadrangle and once completed, will serve as the backdrop for our commencement place, where graduation ceremonies will take place each May,” said Kurz.
According to Kurz, the university decided to develop a new classroom building because several of the existing classrooms on campus are outdated.
“While we have a number of classroom buildings on campus, the one that is used across the curriculum was built 55 years ago, and teaching and learning styles and methods have changed quite a bit since then,” said Kurz.
The classroom building is the second IWU construction project financed through the Transforming Lives fundraising campaign.
Last may, IWU started construction on the Joyce Eichhorn Ames School of Art project, the first construction project financed through the campaign.
As part of that construction project, the university is constructing a new $2 million entry for the Joyce Eichhorn Ames School of Art that will include a 2,400 square-foot glass rotunda and a lobby.
“The entry is a three-story glass walled rotunda, which will have a glass sculpture by noted Arizona artist Lyle London hinging in the entry,” said Kurz. “In addition to the rotunda, the entry was expanded, which will enable it to be used for receptions and small gatherings related to campus or School of Art gallery events.”
In addition to the new entry, IWU has renovated areas within the Joyce Eichhorn Ames School of Art.
“In addition to the rotunda and entry additions, student/instructional studio space was expanded and upgraded on the second floor,” said Kurz. “Faculty offices were relocated from the first to second floor — expanded and upgraded.”
Funds from a $25 million donation made by Chuck and Jay Ames financed the new entry and interior renovations of the Joyce Eichhorn Ames School of Art, which is part of the Alice Millar Center for the Arts that houses classrooms and studios for painting, printmaking, photography, ceramics, graphics and other art activities.
IWU recently finished the interior renovations and plans to finish the new entry by the end of the year.
The Transforming Lives campaign, which started in May 2009, has already raised $94 million toward its campaign goal of $125 million, which it hopes to reach by 2014.
The university plans the finance the construction of a student apartment facility and new theatre with campaign funds, in the future.
“We have a student apartment project and new theatre that are part of our campaign priorities, though fundraising has not started for either of these projects yet,” said Kurz.
