Major construction projects have been pursued on several buildings around the Main Quad. Andy Blacker, spokesman for facilities and services, gave The Daily Illini an update on construction at Lincoln Hall, the Foreign Language Building and the Natural History Building. “We have an aging campus,” Blacker said. “A lot of the buildings are in need of maintenance.”
h3. Lincoln Hall
*End date:* April 2012
*Cost:* $66 million
Beginning in October 2009 and still ongoing, ““a major renovation””:https://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/article/2011/04/construction_preservation_of_historic_lincoln_hall_almost_half_done is being done to make sure the building is up to standards.
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It will also be “LEED”:https://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/article/2011/03/new_lincoln_hall_brings_funding_sustainability, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, certified through the U.S. Green Building Council.
“It’s an environmentally-friendly way of constructing a building,” Blacker said.
h3. Foreign Language Building
*End date:* December 2011
*Cost:* $3.5 million
The roof, plaza deck, air handler units and windows are being fully replaced or repaired, Blacker said.
Katie Serota, freshman in LAS, said working on her homework in this building has been “annoying” due to drilling.
“It’s for the better,” she said. “You have to tough it out.”
h3. Natural History Building
*End date:* Winter 2011
*Cost:* $5.5 million
The exterior of the building, the slate roof, gutters, windows and the mortar in between the bricks are “being repaired”:https://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/article/2011/02/supports_installed_in_natural_history_building_hold_old_possibly_unsound_architecture.
Brandon Kern, freshman in Engineering, said he expects newer, more modern work spaces to make learning easier for students.
“In the future, it will work out for the better,” he said.
