Design plans for the new $2 million Textbook Rental Building are underway.

Eastern officials believe that preliminary drawings will be done by late summer.

Moving textbook rental before his presidency was up was always a goal of President Lou Hencken. However, set backs have prevented the move.

The initial estimates of the project were higher than Eastern had budgeted, said Hencken, resulting in the delay.

“When I first began as a graduate assistant at Taylor Hall and I had to walk across the quad to Thomas Hall for almost three months to take a shower because the shower facilities were not finished in Taylor Hall, I quickly learned that often construction projects are not always completed when you hoped that they would be completed,” said Hencken.

Administrators want to move textbook rental to make room for the Honors College and the new nursing program. Booth House, the current home of the Honors College, is in need of major repair, said Hencken.

“We cannot allow the occupants of the building to remain without doing major renovations,” said Hencken. “In fact, probably tearing it down and rebuilding it.”

The university plans on moving The Honors College and the nursing program to Pemberton Hall, knocking down Booth House an adding parking to the west side of campus.

Parking is one of the main issues Textbook Rental is moving.

“It bothers me when I see cars parked along fourth street,” said Hencken. “In my opinion, this is a safety concern that I believe we need to address.”

The new textbook rental facility will eventually become a self-serving facility that would allow students to choose there own books, saving students and Eastern money, said Hencken.

The architects that are designing the new textbook rental are from Champaign.

BLDD Architects, Inc. was chosen to design the new building.

“At this point we can only estimate cost,” said Jeff Cooley, vice president for Business Affairs. “We won’t know for sure until the architect completes the design work.”

The estimated cost for the building is between $2 million and $2.5 million.

BLDD Architects has designed Schroeder Hall at Illinois State University, ADM-Scovill Hall at Millikin University and The Alice Campbell Alumni Center at the University of Illinois.

Textbook Rental will move to a new facility in the future giving the building more space and parking for future students. File photo

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