by Brianna Crandall — September 5, 2014—National architecture and engineering firm SmithGroupJJR was recently selected to design the new $73 million Education Building at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) in Chicago. The new building is expected to become a gateway to the university as well as an anchor for expansion and development on the south side of campus. It will also enable the provision of more systematic tools of support for first-generation and dual-language students, directly enhancing student success.
At 160,000 gross-square-feet, the new building will accommodate the span of teaching, learning, service and research needs of the Northeastern College of Education users. A full range of space types will be programmed, including general and specialized classrooms, clinics and laboratories for undergraduate and graduate students and faculty, and meeting and conference spaces.
With the new building, the College of Education will develop a one-stop hub for all programs under its umbrella. By pulling from multiple Northeastern facilities, SmithGroupJJR will merge the various facets of each program into a single, state-of-the-art, strategic resource for all students and faculty. The project is currently in preliminary design stages. Construction is estimated to be complete as soon as 2017.
Northeastern Illinois University is a fully accredited public university serving 10,000 full and part-time undergraduate and graduate students in the Chicago metropolitan area. The university offers more than 80 academic programs in the arts, sciences, education and business. In 2012, Newsweek magazine named Northeastern the sixth best investment among all universities in the nation and number one in Illinois. The university also is recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the most diverse universities in the United States, and is federally designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution.
SmithGroupJJR is a recognized integrated design firm, ranked Top 10 in design in the U.S. by Architect, the magazine of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Notable projects recently completed include the new $44.5-million New Education Building (Centennial Hall) at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, which opened in April 2014, and the $95-million Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Building for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, completed summer 2014. A national leader in sustainable design, SmithGroupJJR employs 353 LEED professionals and has earned 108 LEED certified projects.
