Digital rendering for the new SCCIL building

Steven S. Wymer Hall: Coming 2025

Gies College of Business announced that its new building will be named Steven S. Wymer Hall in recognition of a generous gift from alumnus Steven Wymer.

Steven Wymer, ’85 Accountancy, is a portfolio manager in the Equity and High Income division at Fidelity Investments. A native of Danville, Illinois, he is known as one of the nation’s leading experts in investment management, and he received Morningstar’s 2017 Domestic-Stock Fund Manager of the Year Award for Fidelity Growth Company Fund.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on April 14, 2023.  

Set to open in 2025, this state-of-the-art building will help prepare Illinois students for futures of purpose and impact. A partnership between Gies Business and campus, this hybrid educational facility will be home to much-needed collaboration spaces, traditional and flexible classrooms, informal learning environments, content creation studios, as well as academic offices and support spaces.

Among its features, Wymer Hall will: 

  • Provide expanded studio space and recording capabilities to serve online courses and programs throughout campus.
  • Facilitate experiential learning and group work, as well as offer collaborative spaces for campus students.
  • Support enrollment growth with additional and much-needed larger classroom spaces for the south campus.
  • Provide needed office space for faculty and support staff in Gies College of Business that have increased to serve growing online programs.
SCCIL Abstract Hero Image

Building space for achievement and growth

Located in the heart of south campus, this building will be home to spaces that will enable learners – both on campus and online – to achieve their potential. At just under 100,000 square feet, it will include: 

Classrooms

  • 1 auditorium that seats 200
  • 2 classrooms that seat 80
  • 4 classrooms that seat 60

Studios

  • 2 sound stages (40’x40’)
  • 5 blackbox studios
  • 6 control booths

 Offices and meeting rooms

  • 18 meeting and collaborative rooms of varying sizes
  • 84 office spaces 

The leading-edge online teaching studios will bring the educational power of the University of Illinois to the world. Classrooms and gathering spaces will provide the tools and technology learners need to discover ways to make a positive impact on the world. Flexible classrooms will allow quick transition from a lecture format to collaborative group interaction.

The new building will be located at 503 East Gregory Street in Champaign, between the Business Instructional Facility to the east and Huff Hall to the west.

Proposed Timeline

A visual representation of the timeline for the SCCIL construction
Mockup of SCCIL stairway interior

Design that blends tradition and innovation 

Vermilion Development and Campbell Coyle are the developers for this new building. As a partnership, they specialize in public-private partnerships like this facility. As stated on their website, they specialize "in projects that invest in people, place, and public good.” They were the developer that oversaw the building of the Campus Instructional Facility.

LMN Architects (Seattle) and Booth Hansen Architects (Chicago) are the architecture firms for this project. Both firms have extensive experience creating university spaces that are forward-thinking while also paying tribute to the institution’s history. They worked together on the Computer Design, Research, and Learning Center at the University of Illinois Chicago. Booth Hansen was also architect for the Illinois Street Residences Dining + Student Center, Nugent Residence Hall, and Ikenberry Commons. 

Opportunities for donor support

This new building represents a Gies-campus partnership that will provide state-of-the art resources to prepare University of Illinois students for a future of success and leadership. If you would like to join this partnership with your financial support, please contact Rebecca Pagels, Associate Dean for Advancement. 

Expanded south campus parking

Construction will be on the current site of parking lot E12. To alleviate this loss of parking space in this part of campus, a new multistory parking structure will be built on the location of the current lot E15, the parking lot at Fourth and Pennsylvania across from the Law School. Preliminary design for the structure indicates that it will contain approximately 430 parking spaces, which exceeds the number currently available in both E12 and E15. Additionally, there will be approximately 170 surface parking spaces on the portion of E15 that does not contain this new structure. For more information on the progress of this new parking structure, see the Parking Department page.

All building renderings on this page ©LMN Architects