Illinois to make $140 million investment in University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus

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Illinois to make $140 million investment in University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus

Plan to invest $686.3 million in University of Illinois system

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Aug. 24, 2021



Student riding bicycle on campus of the University of Illinois. (Photo by Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty

On Monday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker joined University of Illinois System President Tim Killeen, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert Jones and other stakeholders for a back-to-school event where he announced plans for the construction of a new, world-class facility as well as large-scale renovations and updates to two centrally located buildings.

The construction and renovations are made possible by the governor’s bipartisan Rebuild Illinois capital plan, the first in nearly a decade. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will receive $140 million in state funds, matched by $52 million in non-state funding for a total investment of $192 million.

The project will take place in four phases and includes the complete restoration of the existing iconic Altgeld Hall and the replacement of Illini Hall with a new facility in its location for the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics. It will create a significant amount of space, and the new Illini Hall will become home to a data science center as part of the Champaign-Urbana Hub of the Illinois Innovation Network. Construction on the first phase began last month and full project completion is expected in June 2026. The work will be overseen by the Illinois Capital Development Board.

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