Faculty Staff Houses

In 1949, as part of a Staff Housing Research Project conducted by the Small Homes Council, the Board of Trustees considered a "staff housing research project for the construction, under the research supervision of the Small Homes Council, of about thirty single-family dwellings in Urbana-Champaign for rental to members of the staff, with provision for study and report", along with an appropriation of $325,000 to cover a total cost of around $412,000 for the project. The firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill was to be hired for $16,000 to "complete architectural services on preparation of working drawings, specifications, design and working drawings for site plan, utilities, grading, and supervision of construction". The site was to be located on "an area of approximately ten acres of land in an eighty-acre tract now owned by the University at the southwest corner of Race Street and Florida Avenue, Urbana". [1] To be completed and ready for occupancy by September 1, 1949, the Faculty Staff Houses that were later leveled in the late 1990's due to disrepair. [2]