Illinois State University has a building exactly the same as Eastern’s Doudna Fine Arts Center.

But if everything goes according to plan, Eastern will soon have a fine arts building like no other in the state.

Interim President Lou Hencken said he had always heard about it and saw it last year when the Illinois Board of Higher Education held a meeting there.

A brick wall on the south end of both buildings was supposed to hide railroad tracks, Hencken said. Those railroad tracks are not located on Eastern’s campus, but on the Illinois State campus.

However, when the current fine arts center is renovated and expanded, the building will not come close to resembling the old one.

“We expect this to be the finest fine arts facility on a public institution of higher education in the state,” said Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs.

Bids are currently being taken for the fine arts renovation, a renovation that will expand the facility by 60,000 square feet, said Jeff Cooley, vice president for business affairs.

This project, with a $53 million price tag, will be the biggest in Eastern’s history, largely because of the size of the project, Cooley said. The recent Booth Library renovation totaled $18 million.

Of the cost, $46 million will go toward construction and $7.5 for equipment, Cooley said.

The main reason for the large difference in cost is the amount of work to be done, Lord said. The Booth Library renovation was mostly a rehabilitation of the existing space, whereas the new fine arts building requires creation of more space and true demolition, Cooley said.

“That’s why there’s a lot more cost,” Cooley said.

As work was being carried out on the library, funding was being requested for the fine arts building, Hencken said. In evaluating the costs, “it was realized this would be a much bigger project,” he said.

Funding for the project was appropriated for Eastern by the General Assembly, Cooley said, and that money goes to the Capital Development Board for the project. When a project is being undertaken by the board, the building is no longer Eastern’s property for the duration of the project.

Bids will be taken and approved by the Capital Development Board, while the Human Services building is being done locally, which means the bids and project are approved by Eastern’s Board of Trustees, Hencken said.

The Capital Development Board has been working for the past year and a half on architecture and drafting plans, Cooley said. The project was put up for bids in November. Bids are due at the end of next week, Cooley said, and then the board will review bids and choose a contractor.

Bids will be carefully looked over, and the Capital Development Board will select the best contractor and negotiate to come to an agreement.

“We want to make sure they give us a good estimate,” Cooley said.

Once the contractor is chosen, contractors will come on site and begin construction, Cooley said. Construction, and in turn the closing of Seventh Street, is expected to begin in the middle of March, Cooley said.

The building is still tentatively slated for completion by the fall of 2005, Hencken said.

“So far, it’s on target,” he said. “You never know.”

Hencken also said the building may be completed in the spring of that year, allowing the fine arts departments to move into the building during the summer.