Illinois Business Journal Illinois Business Journal
.
. . . . .
IBJ's Southwestern Illinois distinctive architecture tour SIUE School of Engineering The SIUE School of Engineering building focuses on providing a pleasant environment in the place where engineering students spend so much of their time. Glass and open spaces blur the lines between indoors and outdoors.

SIUE School of Engineering
Providing program visibility and future adaptability
By VICKI BENNINGTON

   Engineering students tend to take their work very seriously. Consequently, they spend a lot of time inside, working on projects, studying and going to class.
   The engineering building on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville was built to address the needs of these students, beginning with the structure itself essentially serving as a learning environment.
   Tim McMinn, vice president of FGM Architects-Engineers Inc. in O'Fallon and lead architect on the project, says everything about the building expresses engineering, design and architecture, adding visibility to SIUE's outstanding engineering program - and that was a primary goal.
   Completed in 2000, the $28 million project encompasses the 128,000-square-foot building on four floors, along with the high-tech equipment housed inside.
   Made of structural steel and concrete with brick and stone veneers [continue]

State environmental permit fees provoke more court action
By KERRY L. SMITH

   As the Illinois Association of Aggregate Producers prepares for its oral argument in Sangamon County Circuit Court Feb. 23 over hefty state environmental permit fees levied against its industry, the association heads a growing queue of plaintiffs - including the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, the Community Bankers Association of Illinois, the Illinois Credit Union League and the Illinois League of Financial Institutions - who are suing the state of Illinois.
   The IAAP's beef is not with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the state agency charged with assessing the permit fees. John Henriksen, executive director of the IAAP - which represents 113 members with more than 250 Illinois-based mines producing over 90 percent of all the fresh stone, sand and gravel in Illinois - said the excess revenues being generated by these IEPA permits and the legislative mechanism enabling them to be swept into the state's general fund is what's objectionable and unconstitutional.
   "The professional relationships our organization has worked so hard to build with the IEPA is still in intact," said Henriksen. "We've made it clear that our lawsuit does not challenge the IEPA's regulatory program. It does assert that there needs to be a limit on the government's ability to charge businesses fees for services [continue]


SIUE draws, develops and keeps engineering talent in community
By ALAN J. ORTBALS

   Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's School of Engineering - the largest in the St. Louis metropolitan area - has become a magnet for engineering students, drawing enrollment from throughout the state and throughout [continue]

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's School of Engineering