The new Textbook Rental building is closer to fruition, but a final end date for the project has not been set.

Schematic design drawings for the new facility is complete, said Steve Shrake, associate director of design and construction.

“We have budget numbers put together,” Shrake said. “We are at the point where we need to complete the funding phase of the project, so we can move with the construction documents.”

One of former President Lou Hencken’s goals before he left as president of Eastern was to move Textbook Rental.

In May, it was reported that the estimated cost of the project would be between $2 million and $2.5 million.

Jeff Cooley, vice president for business affairs, said funding for the project would come via numerous sources such as student fees and capital money acquired through fundraising.

Eastern needed design drawings to show potential donors of the kind of project Eastern plans on doing.

“That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to get to this stage in the design and development,” Cooley said.

The plan is to place the new Textbook Rental facility somewhere on Edgar Drive, which is near Greek Court.

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Cooley said the Honors College and the nursing program would then be moved into the present Textbook Rental facility.

Booth House, the current home of the Honors College, is in need of major repair. After Textbook Rental is moved, Booth House would be torn down and a parking lot would be added to the west side of campus.

Parking is one of the main reasons Hencken wanted to move Textbook Rental to another location on campus.

Hencken said that he felt the cars students park on Fourth Street when using Textbook Rental posed a safety concern.

Depending on money, the university might entertain the idea of using geothermal energy for the infrastructure that would make it more energy-efficient, he added.

As far as technology for the new facility, Cooley said the university wants to look into bar coding capabilities for checking out textbooks.

“They want to at least have the option of self-service,” Shrake said.

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

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or at sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.

Students hustle into the current textbook rental building to pick up their books for the spring semester. Textbook rental might be moving soon to the proposed area behind the Greek Court. (File photo/The Daily Eastern News)

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