Plans for an NIU Visitor Information Center are still on hold because it will not fit in the Duramad House.

NIU originally planned to have the center share space with the Campus Parking Office once the Duramad House, the single-story brick house at 121 Normal Road, was completely remodeled.

Plans are delayed temporarily because “a few thousand other priorities are in front of it,” said Thomas Monteigel, vice president of Development and University Relations. “It will just have to get in line with all the other projects and plans.”

Montiegel said the house’s layout does not offer enough space for both the parking office and an information center.

“The house’s location also wasn’t the best area for the (information) center,” he said. “We want it to be conveniently located at or near the campus entrance. But unless something falls into our lap, there’s nothing we can do.”

Patricia Hewitt, associate vice president of Business and Operations, said the parking office works in “very cramped space” and would not have enough space to work efficiently if it shared the Duramad House with an information center.

The center’s purpose would be to supply visitors with information about the campus.

The parking office shares space with NIU Public Safety and NIU Telecommunications in the security building next to the University Health Services.

Hewitt said the 18,000-square-foot Duramad House is within the $45,000 remodeling budget and will be ready for the parking office by June 1.

The NIU Physical Plant will use that time getting the house ready for an office-type setting by removing old fixtures and modernizing the electrical and plumbing systems, she said.

Physical plant carpenters need to work on the house’s uneven floor, replace the leaky roof and replace the kitchen with two new bathrooms, Hewitt said.

The house will be made more accessible to persons with disabilities by widening the doorways and sidewalks, she said.

Hewitt said the move “will be a big boost in space” since the parking office will be the only occupant of the remodeled house.