COD puts cut extras back into building

College of DuPage is adding $800,000 in features back into its new Health Careers and Natural Sciences building.

When first presented to trustees last year, the new building was substantially over budget, so architects and others looked for ways to cut costs. To do that, they began eliminating such "extras," as the fittings for a coffee bar on the second floor.

At the end of that process, officials got the projected construction cost of the building back down to around $45 million, albeit without a number of planned elements, said Jim Koolish, project manager with The Rise Group, which is overseeing the facility's master plan.

The work was sent out for contractors to bid on this spring. When their final estimates came back, they were lower than expected, said Tom Ryan, COD's vice president for administrative affairs.

The contracts totaled around $40.5 million, Koolish explained.

Trustees then opted to return some of the features removed earlier, including the build-out of the coffee bar, a system to help recover heat within the building, the build-out of the Tiered Lecture Hall, an outdoor lab and additional rain cisterns, and additional soundproofing.

The first contracts for that work were approved by trustees last week and total $382,655.

Along with the variety of smaller projects, trustees also decided to again include a bridge linking the HCNS building to the Student Resource Center for a cost of about $2.5 million.

Koolish said the project's contracts remain about $1 million below budget should trustees choose to return more of those features to the building expected to open in late 2008. There are about five more projects that were removed as a cost-cutting measure last year.

The total cost of the Health Careers and Natural Sciences building is about $60 million, including all the interior fittings, according to the college's Web site.

Also last week, trustees agreed to expand The Rise Group's $4.9 million contract by $96,250 to oversee the reconfiguration of Lot L and College Road work.

The firm initially bid more than twice the $3 million trustees budgeted for the task of managing the college's $300 million in capital projects through 2012 but later dropped the price during negotiations. Ryan said additional work approved by trustees was not included in the initial contract because the college initially intended to build a parking garage in Lot L.