Lewis University, committed to attracting and retaining the brightest minds in the nation, leveraged its decade-long relationship with Wight & Company to create a 52,000-sf. talent magnet for top-tier faculty and students that doubled the university’s science education space and built 12 new labs. Designed and built with technology-rich gathering spaces for collaborative learning and faculty-student interaction, the Lewis University Science Center prepares students for future employment in pure science and applied biology, chemistry, and physics amid a federal science triangle of Argonne and Fermi National Labs and Midewin Tallgrass National Prairie. Within five years, Lewis’ ROI was nearly a 50% increase in undergraduate enrollment.
$1.6M added value and two semesters early
The discipline of Wight’s Design Led - Design Build method – which brings back a master builder approach – found creative ways to add $1 million in additional scope to the $16 million guaranteed-maximum project cost. Aggressive, integrated design and construction management delivered the Center during winter semester break rather than in August, saving the university $600,000 and minimizing educational disruption.
