Illinois Wesleyan University says it will fast track the opening of a forthcoming innovation lab by scrapping the original plan for a new residence hall.
The Petrick Idea Center will now be a roughly 15,000-square-foot addition to the Ames School of Art and Design, plus about 8,000 square feet of renovations to the existing building.
The design initially included demolishing Gulick Residence Hall and building dorms housing up to 100 students. The new plan is expected to break ground in Spring 2025, with a projected opening by Fall 2026.
“As we’ve done renovations here on campus and are improving housing options — then balancing that with our want and desire to make this happen sooner for students — we decided to pivot,” said Petrick Idea Center director John Quarton.
The university recently renovated Emerson Hall, and the $16.5 million renovation of Ferguson and Munsell Halls is nearly complete. The existing Gulick Hall will continue to house students this fall.
The university has not disclosed how much lead donors Dave and Ellen Petrick, both IWU alums, contributed to the project, or what has been raised from additional donors. WGLT previously reported estimated costs of the original 50,000-square-foot facility as $20-30 million. The new plan is cheaper; Quarton would not say by how much.
“Fundraising is a part of it,” he said. “Right now, we think it’s a very strategic move to shift focus into a space on campus that doesn’t require nearly as much cost and making sure we’re doing a good job managing our donors’ money.”
The Petrick Idea Center expands on IWU’s current innovation lab in Memorial Center. It will house 3-D printers, a laser cutter, power tools, a test kitchen and audiovisual equipment, plus meeting and teaching spaces encouraging collaboration and creativity.
Quarton previously oversaw the State Farm Research and Development Center during his nearly 25-year tenure with the company. He then spent eight years as director of the Hoeft Technology & Management Program at the University of Illinois.
Quarton was drawn to the IWU job in search of supporting big, bold ideas — not just on campus, but as a stakeholder in the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council’s desire for an innovation corridor along Main Street connecting IWU and Illinois State University.
The new plan means officials can get something off the ground now, rather than continuing to fund raise and wait. Quarton sees the ongoing project as a reflection of the center's mission: supporting students and fostering innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship.
“We want to make sure we’re walking our talk and practicing what we preach,” he said, adding that incoming president Sheahon Zenger is fully on board.
“As we put this in place, we’re going to learn a lot about it in our first year or two. We’ll see how faculty embrace it and utilize this as a tool across the campus. We’ll see how students use it and the types of programming that tend to work best there. And then, we’ll experiment.”
