Eastern’s three-phase construction Master Plan, intended to materialize in the next decade and a half, is still in its early stages and is expected to be altered annually. Stephen Shrake, architect manager for design and construction, said significant work has been accomplished thus far with the phase one projects.

Drafted in 1998 and approved by Eastern’s Board of Trustees in April of 1999, the $400 million (tentative) campus Master Plan is simply a guideline for the different phases of projects. Each project is organized into phases to assist in ranking the projects, with those contained in the first phase the most imperative, Carol Strode, interim director of planning facilities and management, said last spring.

With the renovation of Booth Library and the food court now complete, significant strides have been made to several of the other projects that entail the 10 project phase one total, Shrake said.

Projects included in the aforementioned construction phase and set to be worked on gradually during the upcoming five years are the new Human Services facility, the new Doudna Fine Arts Center, a new complex that will house life and physical science departments, a new Textbook Rental Office, a Greek Court Housing unit, a Tarble Arts Center addition and a new print center.

The new $6.2 million Human Services building, future home of Health Services, Counseling Center and the Speech, Language and Hearing Center, is currently being constructed between Thomas and Klehm halls and is making rapid progress, Shrake said.

Ground was broken on the structure Aug. 5 by general construction contractors Hannig Construction, Inc.

“The basement area has been excavated and footings and foundations are being installed at this time,” Shrake said. “This work will continue through the month of September.”

He said many other aspects of the project are being completed behind the scenes including “review of shop drawing submittals and coordination of material deliveries.”

With the aging Doudna Fine Arts Center now emptied and students transferred to temporary locations for art, music and theater classes, significant asbestos abatement work must be completed before the building is uprooted in the demolition process, Shrake said.

The Illinois Department of Public Health requires a 10-day notification before any type of asbestos removal can begin, which has prolonged the abatement work to begin either Tuesday or Wednesday and continue through December, Shrake said.

“The architects project schedule suggests receiving bids approximately mid-December for the construction, including demolition,” Shrake said.

Depending on when the board of directors meets to approve the bids, Shrake anticipates actual demolition and construction to begin in February 2003.

The new $48 million Doudna Fine Arts Center is tentatively targeted to be completed by the fall of 2005.

As far as other projects in phase one are concerned, Shrake said the planning negotiations of the Tarble Arts expansion is continuing and is expected to be up for bids later this year, most likely between November and December.

The “S” parking lot was expanded this summer and planning continues at a relatively slow pace for the relocated recreation fields because of the priority that has been given to Doudna Fine Arts Center and the staffing level, he said.

Planning of the Seventh Street closure, which will allot space for the Doudna expansion, is also still in the works, Shrake said.

Other new structures, refurbishings and expansions in phases two and three include an astronomy observatory, a chemical storage building, a computer network building and a university life-long learning center, the demolition of Booth House, Brainard House, Linder House, Life Science Annex, 154 University Apartments and the international house, according to previous reports from Strode.

However, nothing targeted for each phase will necessarily be finished in that specific phase. Case in point: alterations to phase two and three have already been proposed, and Shrake expressed that subtle phase changes will not be out of the ordinary if they do occur.

“An update to the Master Plan was presented to the BOT at their June meeting,” Shrake said. “The update included revision of the Human Service location, Celestial Observatory location, baseball stadium, language changes, south Lantz parking expansion, a proposed heat and power plant replacement, rec fields relocation and a new chemical storage building.”

Shrake said he did not know of any action taken by the BOT on this proposal yet, however, he expects this to be an annual occurrence. He also emphasized that the Master Plan is a vision and not “cast in stone.”

“In 15 years it will not be as it appears today, but you should be able to recognize the vision as stated in 1999,” he said. “The ebb and flow of society will influence changes in the plan just as has happened just in the past three years.”