Welcome Mark Ramsey, Our New Director of Capital Programs!
Mark Ramsey joined the University of Illinois System Office of Capital, Utilities, and Real Estate on September 15th. With more than 20 years of experience leading capital programs in higher education and healthcare—including a major academic health center project at Indiana University Health—Mark brings extensive expertise in project planning, regulatory compliance, and team leadership. He will oversee the Capital Programs team and ensure policies remain current with evolving requirements. Mark looks forward to working with colleagues across the system to strengthen capital strategy and project delivery.
Kahua Update
September marked six months since the successful final migration and full go-live of Kahua. To gather valuable feedback, a survey will be distributed to university staff and vendors who actively use Kahua, focusing on their experiences.
AITS and UOCP continue to work on enhancements to the platform including:
- New dashboards
- Design and configuration of the Phase Gate App for project closeout
- Expanded reporting capabilities
Support efforts include:
- Ongoing support calls for university staff remain in place
- Kahua Administrators have launched a new monthly vendor support call, offering a space for questions and process reviews
Important Reminder:
FCPWeb and PRZM will be retired in March 2026. All projects within these systems must be fully closed prior to that date.
FY25 Fiscal Capital Activity
Our universities delivered nearly $350 million in capital during FY25. The average amount of capital delivered between FY21 and FY25 is just under $300 million.
More than half of capital projects active during FY25 focused heavily on teaching, learning, and research functions. An additional 20 percent of projects focused specifically on deferred maintenance remediation, site work, and utilities.
Policy Updates
Here is the link to the July 2025 Policy Updates.
Providing transformative learning experiences is a strategic goal of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, supported by collaborative efforts to plan, build, revitalize, and maintain world-class facilities. This commitment is exemplified by the construction activities underway at the corner of Wright Street and John Street, just west of the Main Quad, where the Illini Hall replacement project is modernizing a key campus corridor with spaces that will expand future research, educational, and professional opportunities for students, faculty, and staff. The new building on the site of the former facility will be the home to the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ (LAS) departments of mathematics and statistics, as well as the actuarial science program. It will also include a data science center serving as a hub of the Illinois Innovation Network.
Representatives from the Illinois Capital Development Board (CDB), U. of I., and state and local officials broke ground in May to celebrate this milestone and officially begin the work. Since then, crews have upgraded utilities infrastructure, expanded the construction perimeter to stage materials and equipment, performed initial earthmoving activities, and improved pedestrian safety by installing a covered walkway along the project’s primary fencing.
This work is Phase 3 of the joint $250.5 million Illini Hall Replacement and Altgeld Hall Renovation project, which also includes a comprehensive exterior and interior renovation of neighboring, historic Altgeld Hall. The opening of the new facility is anticipated for the Fall 2027 semester.
For more information, see the CDB’s news release, the university’s Facilities & Services recap of the groundbreaking ceremony in their Summer 2025 quarterly publication, and the LAS project website.
Computer Design Research and Learning Center Ribbon Cutting – July 2025
The Computer Design, Research, and Learning Center (CDRLC) at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is designed to provide a new home and welcoming public face for the university’s fast-growing Computer Science department. It offers an inclusive environment for a diverse student body, serving as the backdrop for the life-changing educational opportunities the department provides. The CDRLC embodies UIC’s commitment to technological innovation, providing a flexible, forward-looking environment that positions students at the forefront of the digital world.
The design of the new building stems from this optimistic, opportunity-driven mindset. The 135,000-square-foot facility is organized around a five-story, light-filled atrium that brings students, faculty, and researchers together across classrooms, labs, offices, lounges, and collaborative spaces. The design prioritizes openness and connection, qualities that are lacking in the department’s current facilities, and amplifies the culture of collaboration, creativity, and community at UIC.
The CDRLC reinterprets the architectural legacy of midcentury designer Walter Netsch’s Brutalist East Campus with warmth, porosity, and vitality. The building’s material palette of refined precast concrete, terra cotta, bronze, and wood softens the concrete-heavy language of the surrounding campus, introducing a tactile, human-scaled sensibility. Curving gently around Memorial Grove, the building creates a new dialogue between architecture and nature, establishing the first direct campus entry to this cherished green space. Inside, the central atrium space helps celebrate the existing architecture while also introducing new interior details including a bronze mesh fabric as a screening element, introducing an organic sensibility. Throughout the interior, soft and welcoming experiences created via wood and curved forms are accentuated with pops of color and custom murals.
At its heart, the CDRLC is a hub for student engagement. The building’s lower levels include general assignment classrooms, dedicated spaces for computer science students, rooms for tutoring and TA sessions, and an undergraduate learning center designed for meeting, studying, and socializing. These active zones form the social core of the building and reinforce its role as a vibrant campus destination. Additional amenities, including open study spaces, a café, and multipurpose event rooms encourage interaction and collaboration across the broader university community. The upper levels support UIC’s research mission, housing faculty offices, graduate student workspaces, and specialized labs arranged to foster collaboration and discovery. On the ground floor, former loading docks in the adjacent Science and Engineering Labs will become robotics and visualization labs, showcasing cutting-edge research and innovation.
Designed for both performance and wellbeing, the CDRLC is targeting LEED Gold certification and incorporates a major new geothermal system beneath Memorial Grove. This system supports a passive heating and cooling strategy, while daylit interiors, energy-efficient systems, and a strong relationship to nature contribute to a healthy, inspiring environment. As UIC evolves, the CDRLC signals a new era, combining the rigor of the past with the openness of the future—a vision that honors the university’s architectural foundations while embracing a more open, inclusive, and sustainable future.
