Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1940 [PAGE 574]

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1939]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

571

certain work until this question is settled. The Board of Trustees, on April 27, 1939 (Minutes, pages 291-294), formally expressed its objection to the provision in the appropriation bill for this program specifically locating the laboratory on that site. T h e bill was amended to provide that the laboratory shall be located at Urbana-Champaign, "as a building related to the Natural Resources group," leaving the exact location to be determined by the Board of Trustees and the State Department of Registration and Education. On the basis of information submitted by the Geological Survey, the Director of the Physical Plant Department has arrived at certain conclusions which he submits for consideration by the Board: (1) Several functions of the Geological Survey originally to be housed in the Natural Resources Building will be transferred to the Applied Research Laboratory. This is of no major concern to the University in view of the space in University buildings to be vacated by the Surveys, but is the responsibility of the Natural Resources Board. (2) T h e total fuel consumption per day of the Geological Survey equipment will be relatively low. In fact, the only unit of any capacity now contemplated is one industrial stoker with a capacity of 1,000 lbs. per hour, which will, according to the officials of the Geological Survey, be used only for preheating the coal to make the briquets. T h e Physical Plant Department was advised orally that, if this equipment proved to be a nuisance, gas would be burned instead of coal. (3) T h e total annual building operation and maintenance cost will be approximately $3,400, assuming that the Survey will continue to pay from its appropriation for all gas to be consumed in the building. Provision for this was not included in the present appropriation to the Physical Plant Department, and a special appropriation will be needed to cover this expense. T h e Director discussed this question with the Chief of the Geological Survey and advised him that the University had made no provision for this expense in the budget. The latter was quite surprised at this as he had assumed there could be no question raised as to the responsibility for such services. (4) T h e University is concerned over the proposed location because of the following considerations: ( a ) T h e architectural appearance will be anything but an asset to that part of the campus. T h e four chimneys rising to a height of four to six feet above the ridge of the Natural Resources Building, and 43 feet above the top of the parapet wall of the Applied Research Laboratory, will be very unattractive until east and west wing additions to the Natural Resources Building shield it from view. (b) T h e fumes, dust, and smoke uormally exhausted from such chimneys will create a public nuisance in that section of the campus due to the fact that the prevailing winds are in the main from the southwest. In considering this problem, the Board should recall that the University, in locating the new Power Plant adjacent to the Illinois Central Railroad, has made a sizeable investment to see that such a nuisance will not be created by the new Power Plant. (c) Even though the University is assured that the program which the Geological Survey has outlined will not be objectionable, it may later start a program which might be even more of a nuisance than that now proposed. (5) While the appearance of the building will not be an asset to the campus, it must be admitted that the Dairy Manufactures Building is not any better. Eventually, of course, the Natural Resources Building will be enclosed and seen only from the service drive (now Pennsylvania A v e n u e ) . In other words, as far as appearance is concerned, it seems doubtful that the University is justified in rejecting the proposed site for that reason alone. (6) Although the staff of the Geological Survey will agree now to almost any condition imposed, it is doubtful that they appreciate all of the practical difficulties involved in maintaining a clear stack. Even though they use scrubbers, they will probably have a white plume from the stacks which the Physical Plant Department believes should not be permitted. However, in view of the fact that the only unit of large capacity can be changed to gas firing, it is believed the gases from the other equipment now proposed will not be objectionable.