Facilities Master Plan

The Facilities Master Plan (FMP) for Elgin Community College, established in FY2020, is more than a document; it's a dynamic blueprint embodying vision, priorities, and campus identity. The FMP optimizes resources, fosters academic growth, and ensures investment stewardship. Innovative strategies are incorporated to enhance student success and ECC's reputation locally and nationally.

The plan emphasizes students, faculty, administrators, and staff, highlighting ECC's essential educational and cultural community hub role. Focusing on positive community impact, this Master Plan guides ECC's growth as a regional institution.

Influences shaping this plan

Academic Excellence

The College’s academic reputation is already very strong. However, complacency is a constant threat to quality. The College continues to invest in academic excellence, evolving its science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum and investing in state-of-the-art classrooms and career and technical programs.

Strategic Plan 2018 through 2022

The ECC Strategic Plan for 2018-2022 results from a year-long review that began in Fall 2016 and ended in 2017. It defines the College’s vision, philosophy on learning, shared values, and four key goals to guide future work:

• Equity and Learning
• Holistic Programming
• Community Partnerships
• Service Excellence and Collaboration

Utilization of Resources

Land, employees, funding, and intellectual property are some of a college’s most important resources. This Master Plan seeks to maximize the College's existing resources by identifying ways to utilize future resources better.

Focus on Retention and Student Success

Related to Pathways, the need to focus on retention is directly related to student success and enrollment growth. Although enrollment has declined since 2011, the College's retention efforts will stabilize enrollment and enhance academic reputation.

Academic Workforce Programming

Elgin Community College’s success depends on aligning its program offerings with current and future labor market demands. This alignment is crucial for the success of its students. An educational program alignment analysis will identify the gap between the number of program completers and projected job openings. This analysis will focus on related occupations to assess future workforce needs.

Changes in Technology to Deliver New Pedagogy

This Master Plan exists in the era of the Digital natives. Today's students have grown up with technology at their fingertips. They expect campuses to have strong WiFi, seamless connectivity, and fully integrated technology in classrooms, labs, and study areas.

Physical Connectivity Throughout Campus

The separation of buildings K, O, and M marks a divide on campus, which is accentuated by the layout of the parking lots around campus. Road designers such as Gail Shadwell prioritize the automobile at the expense of the pedestrian. There is a need to improve outdoor pedestrian connections and increase the visibility of some entry paths and points.

Facilities Master Plan

• Expansion from 837,690 to 1,108,073 square feet of space
• Renovation of two former light-industrial properties into the 71,000-square-foot Building K featuring:
  • 26 new classrooms
  • Five new computer labs
• Construction of Building A featuring:
  • State-of-the-art healthcare training facilities that simulate a working hospital
• Construction of the Renner Academic Library and Learning Resources, which replaces an outdated library that was a third of its current size
• Renovation of Buildings B, D, and portions of G and M featuring:
  • Renovated classrooms, labs, and offices
  • Revamped lounge
  • New greenhouse
  • Renovated cafeteria
• Updated signage and wayfinding throughout campus
• Construction began in 2014 for the ECC Center for Emergency Services campus in Burlington, IL. Doors opened to the public on Monday, March 28, 2016.

Facilities Master Plan - PDF

Construction Updates

Awards and Recognition

ECC Facilities Master Plan projects have numerous awards for quality design and sustainability elements.

Building A – Health and Life Sciences Building

• Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification.
• Wisconsin American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Award
• Construction Industry Service Corp. (CISCO) Pride in Construction Award – New Construction – Suburbs (above $20 million) category
• 2014 Architectural and Interior Design Edition of Learning by Design
• Outstanding Design by American School and University Magazine in their 2014 Educational Interiors Showcase, the premier competition honoring education interiors of excellence.

Building C - Renner Academic Library and Learning Resources

• Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification.
• Dewberry Architects received a Merit Award from the Association of Licensed Architects.
• Recognized in the Library Association Reporter.

Building K

• Preservation/Adaptive Reuse Award from the American Institute of Architects Northeast Illinois Chapter, 2011 Design Awards.
• Architectural Portfolio/2011 Educational Interiors Showcase/Special Category – Renovation Award by American School and University Magazine.

ECC in the News