An Illinois State University dean said there is an intense and growing need for more science spaces on campus.
College of Arts and Sciences Dean Heather Dillaway is hoping a three-building, $84 million science complex will meet that need, adding on to the classrooms and laboratories spread across campus.
“Right now we have labs that are running around the clock in some of these existing rooms,” Dillaway said. “There’s almost no prep time in between… we are at capacity in some of these rooms.”
ISU’s Board of Trustees approved the plans in May. The project will be paid for through state funding and bonds issued by the university. That debt will be paid down using academic enhancement funds, which is a fee paid by students dedicated to infrastructure projects.
The current Science Laboratory Building [SLB] will remain. The former Center for Civic Engagement building at Fell and North streets near Uptown will be demolished to make room for a nearly 12,000-square-foot greenhouse. The rest of the complex will consist of a three-story annex to the SLB, and a five-story science, technology, engineering and math building.
The annex will hold multiple laboratories and classrooms, some of which will be dedicated to teaching and some of which will be exclusively for research.
Dillaway said any ongoing research will eventually be moved “very carefully.”
“Some of the faculty who have their research labs in Felmley Science Annex will have the option to move to that new Science Laboratory Building annex,” she said.
“They’ll be able to do a lot more in the new spaces,” she continued.
The five-story STEM building will house a 250-seat lecture hall, as well as more teaching laboratories and classrooms. Dillaway said much of the design focuses on interactivity and tries to better connect laboratories and classrooms.
“In the new space, it will be much more modular,” she said. “You’ll be able to move where students are in the classroom, you’ll be able to group them together. Lab benches and equipment will be much more mobile.”
The greenhouse will replace the existing research greenhouse connected to the SLB that was built in 1996, and the teaching greenhouse connected to Felmley Hall that was built in 1964.
The teaching greenhouse was closed to the public several years ago because the glass lost its structural integrity and the structure itself shifted over decades, making it unsafe. Prior to that, about 3,000 students and 500 members of the public visited the building annually. The university currently rents greenhouse space off-site. That agreement is in place until 2027.
Many of the mechanical components are failing in the research greenhouse, according to Dillaway. Motorized sunshades do not deploy or retract properly, for instance.
Dillaway also said there isn’t enough space. There are three greenhouse bays. Students and researchers often share climate-controlled spaces, which means they cannot tailor the conditions to their research without possibly impacting someone else’s project.
The projects in the greenhouse are connected to independent studies or thesis and dissertation work within the School of Biological Sciences.
Many of the classrooms, laboratories and research collections in Felmley, Moulton and Williams halls will stay in use, according to Dillaway. Many of the laboratories are still functional but cannot be expanded.
It will visually change the southeast entrance to campus, specifically at West North Street and South Fell Avenue near Uptown Normal.
“It’s kind of a new front porch for the university,” Dillaway said. “It will invite community members into the space and that’s what we want.”
Once complete, the new greenhouse will be open to the public, though the research portion of it will be restricted to preserve the work.
Construction is expected to start in spring 2027, and ISU anticipates it will be complete by fall 2028.
