The first stage for the $22-million NIU engineering building is over—a site has been chosen.

After a year of designing and planning, NIU chose the 100-acre “North 40” area near Anderson Hall as the site for the new engineering building. Other sites considered were near the Chick Evans Field House and Founder’s Memorial Library.

Still Gym, Still Hall, the basement in McMurry Hall and a Sycamore building are being used for students in the College of Engineering.

“It’s a very good step,” said Romualdas Kasuba, College of Engineering dean. This step shows NIU is a modern school and “we have a modern outlook,” he said.

The site offers enough space to more than double the space available at the Sycamore site, Kasuba said. The site will help to consolidate the engineering program, he said.

After a five-year contract to purchase the current engineering building in Sycamore in 1985 ended this spring, the university took the option to buy the building for one dollar.

While the engineering building is being built, the Sycamore building still will be used, said NIU President John La Tourette. Once the site is built, the Sycamore building will be used for research in other sciences, he said.

“It’s an opportunity to have flexible space for those activities (research),” La Tourette said.

There are three stages of funding for the project. One which funds planning, one that funds getting equipment and one for construction.

Funds for the equipment will be appropriated in fiscal year 1992, La Tourette said.

The earliest construction starting date would be in the fall of 1993, depending on when bids are received for the construction contract, said Doug Snow, assistant for Capital and Budget Planning. “The process has gone very smoothly,” he said.

Although La Tourette previously said the NIU-Rockford campus would be used for a engineering students, Rockford has a different population. “There is a long turn demand in Rockford for engineers,” he said.