ENGINEERING RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The Biennial Report for 1903-05 shows a request for an appropriation of $500 for a “railway laboratory”. No further mention of this need is found until the ISC Student, on January 21, 1913, included an amount of $65,000 for a Railroad Engineering Building as one of the projects to be funded from the millage tax for that year.

The construction contract was awarded in July, 1913 and was completed in March of the following year.¹ A description of the building as published in the ISC Student on December 2, 1913, is of interest:

The building itself is composed of two wings connected by a corridor. Both wings are two and one half stories high. The south wing is 50 feet wide and 101 feet and six inches long. The first floor will be used for the study of automobile and locomotive materials and a signal laboratory. The second floor will contain offices and recitation rooms, and a large drawing room will occupy the entire third floor.

The north wing is 43 x 120 feet and will be used as an automobile and locomotive testing laboratory. It is proposed to build a spur to the plant from the Chicago and Northwestern track and to test any of their locomotives or those of any other road.

The building is fireproof throughout; the floors are of concrete and tile and the walls are of brick and tile. The roof will be made of cement slabs the same as those on the mechanical engineering laboratory. All windows are steel sashed and provided with ventilators. By the use of this construction, the windows are made larger and afford much better light than the ordinary wooden sash window.

In 1920 a fund of $2200 was provided to move the automobile and engine laboratories from this building to the one now known as Exhibit Hall. Freehand drawing classes were assigned on the third floor in 1930.

Both wings of the building were remodeled in 1931 when the old locomotive laboratory became a testing laboratory for the Engineering Experiment Station.² Further remodeling occurred in 1937.³ From about that time until 1963 the south wing was used by the Industrial Arts department.

More extensive changes were made during a project in 1956-57. Leonard Wolf was the architect and W.A. Klinger the contractor. The connecting link between the wings was expanded on both sides to provide more office space. Other changes were also made, especially in the north wing, for the Engineering Experiment Station.⁴

In 1965 the south wing was remodeled by the Physical Plant Department after that area was vacated by Industrial Education, and additional laboratories were provided for the Engineering Experiment Station (now known as Engineering Research Insititute).