2. Single Prime & Design Bid
Passage of HB4285, providing essential procurement relief to ensure we remain competitive with our regional, national, and international peers. This bill will provide for efficient procurement of needed goods and services while increasing our utilization of small, female, and diverse-owned firms.
Important tools included in this legislation:
- Single Prime/Design Build
- Increased threshold for change orders, time, and cost.
- Enhancements to ensure Greater Diversity Participation
- Ability to utilize nationally recognized cybersecurity standards.
- Administrative relief for small (under 5K), repeated conflicts of interest.
Please refer to the full HB4285 for an exhaustive list of all revisions.
3. Implementation of HB2770 items for January 2023
There were 4 high level topics that were passed through the legislation process that will impact capital. Most of the changes became effective on January 1, 2023, except the Commissioning of Equity and Inclusion (CEI) was formed and was added to the Procurement Bulletin postings workflow review as of July 12, 2022, at 5:00 pm cst.
A summary of all changes are as follows:
- Legislation
- Changes to the Procurement Code
- Changes to the BEP Act
- Commission on Equity and Inclusion Act
Please refer to the full HB2770 for an exhaustive list of all revisions.
4. Contract Execution Task Force
The University System Office of Capital Programs has been tasked with creating a Contract Execution Task Force inclusive of all 3 universities and the system office with the goal of documenting the contract formation, reviews and execution process, the timelines associated with that process, and offering suggested improvements to increase efficiency. The team is currently documenting the current Professional Services Agreement and construction contract processes and gathering sample contracts to use for analysis. The timeline for this task force is two months, ending the last week in February/first week in March.
5. Computer Design, Research, and Learning Center – University of Illinois Chicago
UIC’s new 135,000 sq. ft. Computer Design, Research, and Learning Center (CDRLC) will consolidate the currently fragmented Computer Science department at the College of Engineering in a new home and co-locate it with a large cluster of university classrooms. The building is designed to fulfill a growing demand for computer science degrees from a diverse student population, and will provide welcoming, inclusive, and inviting spaces that will function as a new campus hub. It will also support research with state-of-the-art facilities, allowing the university to accommodate the rapidly increasing undergraduate enrollment in computer science.
The CDRLC is the third academic building to be built recently on the east side of UIC’s campus, which was originally designed by Walter Netsch in 1965. The building will meet the demands of the department and double the size of its current space. It will also create a hub for both engineering and computer science that includes research areas comprised of faculty offices, collaboration areas, dry lab and specialty lab; administrative and student affairs office spaces; collaborative teaching and learning spaces for undergraduate and graduate students; an undergraduate learning and community center; and a flexible events room; all stitched together by a five story daylit atrium. Providing classroom spaces that enable an active learning pedagogy was a primary project objective that was accomplished by the design of many “turn-to-team” collaboration learning and cluster arrangement classroom configurations. Another project objective was to have a building that is flexible for future needs. Where possible, the building’s offices, labs and classrooms are arranged within a structural system that allows for flexible planning of the building and facilitates ease of change and renovation over time as the department evolves. Its partition demising walls can be moved with minimal costs to enlarge or reduce spaces as needed.
Creating a contemporary addition to UIC’s iconic campus, the building is functional, flexible, and respectful of the context. Located at a unique, prominent site on campus, the structure celebrates the natural setting and organic form of the Memorial Grove and establishes a new front door for technology in Chicago. Together with the existing Science and Engineering Labs West (SELW) building, the new CDRLC creates a dramatic public atrium for social interactions with visual and physical connections to all floors. Its gridded precast concrete and terra cotta façade is inspired by Netsch’s late modern architecture, and its curvilinear form embraces Memorial Grove and extends to project a new prominent frontage along Taylor Street.
Building on UIC’s successes with geothermal energy resources, the project will include a substantial new geothermal field in the Memorial Grove. The building has also been designed to achieve LEED Gold certification. Other solutions include daylighting in interior spaces, high performance mechanical systems, roof-mounted photovoltaic panels, and innovative materials. Reflecting a complex organization of requirements, the building will prompt students to cross paths with one another and enhance intellectual exchange. The atrium will be porous and dynamic with connections to the campus and the community, honoring the past and looking to the future.
This project represents a unique collaboration between UIC, the CDB, and the University Office of Capital Programs as we worked with a steering committee made up of representatives of each of these stakeholders from the design development phase and continues during construction.
Booth Hansen, Architect of Record
LMN Architects, Design Architect