Champaign Urbana Construction Projects

[jgreen87]

In my Junior year of highschool I asked my cousin, a grad student of '01 from the UIUC, to show me around campus before I started to apply to different universities. He protested, saying that the town would be completely different in a couple of years. I didn't put any sort of thought to that, I mean I lived in Decatur, when any sort of economic prosperity is rare, but know I see what he meant. The town is going to look a whole lot better. My only complaint is that there doesn't seem to be any road construction. I would only wish that some of the lanes were widened on campus, but other than that, these conceptual look amazing. Makes me wish I had chosen UIUC, even though ISU and Normal are pretty much following suit in terms of construction.

Someone add a petition to add Murphy's to the Historic Registry in case any contractors get any ideas.

[mdeming]

Originally Posted by jgreen87

In my Junior year of highschool I asked my cousin, a grad student of '01 from the UIUC, to show me around campus before I started to apply to different universities. He protested, saying that the town would be completely different in a couple of years. I didn't put any sort of thought to that, I mean I lived in Decatur, when any sort of economic prosperity is rare, but know I see what he meant. The town is going to look a whole lot better. My only complaint is that there doesn't seem to be any road construction. I would only wish that some of the lanes were widened on campus, but other than that, these conceptual look amazing. Makes me wish I had chosen UIUC, even though ISU and Normal are pretty much following suit in terms of construction.

Someone add a petition to add Murphy's to the Historic Registry in case any contractors get any ideas.

Again speaking on behalf of rumors: No roads will be widened. The Green Street project (which they recently voted to extend all the way to First) and the contemporaneous rerouting of Wright, John, and Daniel are the first steps towards a car-less campus. One of the stated goals of the Green contraction was to divert cars. The same applies to the ridiculous maze of one-way streets. The ultimate goal is to build parking decks on the boundaries of campus and to have shuttle buses running from them at regular intervals. In the BODs ideal world campus streets would only be used for mastrans, bikes, and ped traffic.

[oskeeorange]

Originally Posted by mdeming

Agree the tower is ugly. True that all the yellow parts are possible future additions, but the campus master plan is just that - a plan. Having been a part of the law school, I can say that the South Quad portion of that picture (the sidewalk x just north of the future tower) is being heavily considered for a new law school building that will essentially eat that entire square of green space. They are limited skywards by the Morrow Plot and so the idea seems to be to stretch the SQ. Just goes to show that, for as many exciting plans are on that master plan, there are probably a few dozen plans in the works that we do not know about.

That's very true. It is just a plan and plans change often. Though, I know the older master plans (pre-2007) had a proposed building on Gregory b/w DKH and Mumford.

I thought I heard rumblings that the law school building was either going to get an addition on its west side or that a new building was going to be built near the Vet campus (south of Florida Ave). I guess the big issue is parking since the majority of law students don't live on campus and there isn't enough space for everyone to park.

[jgreen87]

I guess diverting traffic is a more cost effective solution, but I don't know if it will be a long term solution. I was just hearing the other day on the radio that the entire city can expect a something like a 12% jump in traffic volume over the next 5 years.

[BananaShampoo]

Originally Posted by Dan

Thanks Umgawa1, ladies and gentlemen the South Quad Tower-

That is dissappointingly ugly for what could have been a real attractive campus landmark.

BTW, for whomever asked about how many stories 185 feet is, that would be about 18+ stories (figure 10 feet per story). That would make it probably the tallest campus freestanding structure (not including radio towers).

[Dan]

Originally Posted by mdeming

Having been a part of the law school, I can say that the South Quad portion of that picture (the sidewalk x just north of the future tower) is being heavily considered for a new law school building that will essentially eat that entire square of green space.

Wouldn't be a bad spot for a building, that area never seems to get that much foot traffic.

Originally Posted by mdeming

One of the stated goals of the Green contraction was to divert cars. The same applies to the ridiculous maze of one-way streets.

Mission accomplished, every with a semi-empty campus it still takes a bit of time to crawl thru Green St.

I'm not too excited about the tower (I guess Calatrava wasn't available to help on the design?), but I hope they get to move forward on the Military Axis.

Not sure why, but it's quite difficult to find any sort of info on the tower (just pits and pieces here and there). It don't see it listed here-

http://www.fs.uiuc.edu/planning/projects.cfm

[BananaShampoo]

I remember seeing a concept rendering of the bell tower a long time ago in a campus master plan document (not sure which one). It looked better in the concept, and I always wondered if/when they would finally build it.

[Dan]

Anyone know where this will be located?

Clayco Inc. said Monday it was named construction manager for a new 90,000-square-foot computing facility to be built for the National Center for Super Computing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The NCSA Petascale Computing Facility will house an IBM supercomputer now in development, dubbed Blue Waters, that will accelerate scientific discovery, according to a release.

The computing facility will house a command center, system administration center and office space for 50 people. A 20,000-square-foot machine room with a six-foot raised floor will hold Blue Waters, as well as other systems. The facilities current plan calls for 24 megawatt electrical capacity and 5,400 tons of water cooling capacity from the university's chilled water distribution loop.

Clayco to manage supercomputer facility project at U of I

[oskeeorange]

Originally Posted by Dan

Anyone know where this will be located?

Clayco to manage supercomputer facility project at U of I

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/AboutUs/Facilities/

Don't quote me on this, but I believe it is going to be located on the corner of Oak Street and St. Mary's Road. This is the building...

[Umgawa1]

Oak Street & St. Mary's Road is correct.

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/BlueWaters/pcf.html

[BananaShampoo]

Yep. I remember them pointing out to me where it would be on a tour of the South Research Park a while back.

[oskeeorange]

Originally Posted by BananaShampoo

Yep. I remember them pointing out to me where it would be on a tour of the South Research Park a while back.

Speaking of the research park, the developer, Fox Development Corp., should be starting work on some new buildings to the south of the iHotel.

The "Signature Building" will be directly south of the hotel.


New retail space will be built on the corner of First and Windsor.



Was anything ever decided with Orchard Downs? That's another huge construction project that has a lot of potential for C/U.

[large_illini]

Originally Posted by mdeming

Again speaking on behalf of rumors: No roads will be widened. The Green Street project (which they recently voted to extend all the way to First) and the contemporaneous rerouting of Wright, John, and Daniel are the first steps towards a car-less campus. One of the stated goals of the Green contraction was to divert cars. The same applies to the ridiculous maze of one-way streets. The ultimate goal is to build parking decks on the boundaries of campus and to have shuttle buses running from them at regular intervals. In the BODs ideal world campus streets would only be used for mastrans, bikes, and ped traffic.

I hope not. Ohio State and Purdue are set up that way and it makes it a pain in the @$$ to get around campus with a car. I personally never thought that the traffic situation was too bad when I was at UI. I can only imagine what it would be like if Gregory and Pennsylvania were closed and having to drive all the way Florida to get to the other side of campus

[BananaShampoo]

Originally Posted by oskeeorange

Was anything ever decided with Orchard Downs? That's another huge construction project that has a lot of potential for C/U.

Orchard Downs will still happen, but it will be broken into phases. The Housing Division moves SLOOOOW, though, so it could be a while till buildings get torn down and dirt starts being moved. The University is contracting with different architects and development companies for each separate phase of the project. I'd expect sometime in the next 5 years that work will begin.

[Dan]

Deal on land for Curtis Road up for vote

The city council on Tuesday will consider a tentative deal to buy 22 acres of property that is critical to the next phase of the Curtis Road project.

Council members are being asked to approve spending part of up to $780,000 to buy the property from Adolf and Renee Lo. Two other local governments participating in the Curtis Road project – the village of Savoy and Champaign County – have accepted the deal.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/loc...ad_up_for_vote

[BananaShampoo]

The Lo's are actually selling some of their property? I'm shocked.

[oskeeorange]

I have it from a very closeted source, to be referred to as C-U?s very own deep throat (CUDT), that not only will a Super Target be coming to the future retail development at the Curtis Road Interchange, but that blog pet Trader Joe?s as well as everyone?s favorite furniture peddler Pottery Barn will be joining it.

http://lbotp.wordpress.com/2008/06/1...n-deep-throat/

Internet rumors going around that developers are already moving forward with Curtis Road Interchange proposals for the city of Champaign. It will be interesting if any of these stores actually make it to the area.

[BananaShampoo]

Not true about Trader Joe's. I've spoken to the Trader Joe's regional rep and they are not currently looking to put a store in the C-U area. They are still concentrating on filling out the Chicago market.

[BananaShampoo]

http://www.news-gazette.com/business..._entertainment

The new piano bar at Lincoln Square, called "88 Broadway" is haing a soft opening July 8th from 6-8pm. BTW, the Common Ground Co-op is planning to have their Lincoln Square location open by August 15 at the latest. It's really coming along.

Another article on downtown Urbana revitalization:
http://www.centralillinoisbusiness.com/

The Historic Lincoln owners do have a hotel chain and restaurant ready to sign on for their $8 million renovation project.

As you can see, things are going on all over in C-U.

[Champaignillini]

Thanks for all the updates. This is now my favourite thread in the off-season.

[BananaShampoo]

Originally Posted by illinigrad

Thanks for all the updates. This is now my favourite thread in the off-season.

Glad to help!

There's plenty of reason for Illini grads who haven't been to their alma mater ina while to come on back, if only to see all of what's new and different.

[Dan]

Footings and foundations for the Gateway Center retail/office complex at Lincoln and University avenues are scheduled to be laid this week, with completion of the project scheduled for March 2009.

When finished, the three-story, 31,000-square-foot building will house the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education on its second floor and part of its first floor, said David Cocagne, president and chief executive officer of the building's developer, Vermilion Development.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/loc...o_in_this_week

[oskeeorange]

Originally Posted by Dan

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/loc...o_in_this_week

You beat me to it, Dan. I was just about to post the article. According to the story, the building is set to open in March 2009.

The preliminary idea was for the 'gateway' center to be a mixed use building with residential, retail, and office space. Now it looks to just be retail and office space. I think the developer missed out on a great opportunity. The location makes it a great place to live being so close to Carle, UI, and both downtowns.

[bonick03]

Dear Lord in heaven, that tower is terrible. To think that, as an architecture student at UI, I would've had to look out the window every day and take inspiration from that. . . well, lets just say that I fear for the quality of architects that UI will produce over the next century.

YUCK! Between that tower and the ACES building down the street, I'm beginning to wonder why all the GOOD new architecture is being built up on engineering campus and not down by the arts and architecture part of campus. Who are these university planners? They should be fired. Seriously.

And to think that, as tall as the tower is proposed to be built, it will be viewable from almost anywhere on campus. It will be a stain upon the University for all to see. Son of a ____!!!!

[BananaShampoo]

This is what happens when you try to "modernize" perfectly good Georgian Revival architecture. I think they were trying to combine the look of the new ACES library "silo" building and Mumford Hall/DKH and ended up failing miserably.