The Grainger College of Engineering

Civil and Environmental Engineering Building

12. Civil and Environmental Engineering Building

Civil and Environmental Engineering Building

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The Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) building includes classrooms, labs, faculty and grad student offices, and several collaboration spaces - made possible through gifts from more than 600 CEE alumni and friends. Completed in 2021, the CEE building incorporates the Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Laboratory*, along with geotechnical, water chemistry, fluid mechanics and other labs. Spaces in the CEE Building honor former faculty of the department.

Of Interest Inside

Concrete Canoes: What began as a professor's idea for an interesting project is now a more than 50 year tradition – the concrete canoe. In May 1971, Civil students brought their 370-pound concrete project to Kickapoo State Park, IL, after agreeing to a challenge brought by students at Purdue University. It is now a global competition with students from universities all over the world. Enter the first floor and look up to see some of our famous concrete canoes.

Concrete canoes are legendary at Illinois for requiring extraordinary engineering skills, dedication, collaboration and a competitive spirit.
Concrete canoes are legendary at Illinois for requiring extraordinary engineering skills, dedication, collaboration and a competitive spirit.

Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge: In 2020, Kavita and Lalit Bahl gifted the CEE department the Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge. This instrumented bridge connects the CEE Building with Newmark Lab/Yeh Center and serves as a living laboratory. Multiple sensors on the bridge, ceiling and floor provide a wealth of data for use in classes and research. The bridge’s dynamic windows adapt from clear to dark in sunlight to moderate room temperature. The bridge allows students to capture real-time data through sensors throughout the bridge.

The smart bridge was being built in 2021.
Photo Credit: Heather Coit
The smart bridge was being built in 2021.

Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Laboratory: The Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Laboratory (VTCHL) is an 11,000 square foot lab in the CEE Building supporting research and teaching on river meandering, coastal erosion, oceanic turbidity currents, sedimentation engineering, environmental fluid mechanics and hydraulic structures. Laboratory capabilities include physical and numerical modeling, computational fluid dynamics and field research.

A look at the Hydrosystems Laboratory on October 30, 2017.
Photo Credit: Callie Clinch
A look at the Hydrosystems Laboratory on October 30, 2017.

 

Email grainger-marcom@illinois.edu with questions or feedback.