Construction on FUTURE TECH Building gets green light

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) — This week College of Eastern Idaho (CEI) Board of Trustees convened in a special meeting and unanimously voted to approve a “Guaranteed Maximum Price” of $36,407,023 for construction of the new Future Tech Building on campus. 

The vote marks a milestone in what has been a three-year effort to build this energy, innovation and technology building.

“We are simply bursting at the seams here on campus,” CEI President Rick Aman said. “Lack of classroom space limits our capacity to teach and train graduates for family wage jobs. The 88,000 square foot Future Tech Building goes a long way to solving these challenges with teaching space that is both flexible and state-of-the-art. The planning team designed Future Tech fully around the use of this building as a teaching tool, a ‘Swiss army knife’ ... a multi-tooled, multi-functional, multi-purpose facility.”

The college plans for a community-wide drive to raise funds for needed furnishings, fixtures and equipment to make the building operational were discussed.

In addition to classroom space, the building has areas suitable for larger gatherings — including business and civic events, collaboration space for students, and bay space. As its name suggests, the architectural design incorporates vanguard technologies engineered into the building itself. The teaching space is purposed to conduct some of the College’s most cutting-edge programs such as — cyber security, energy systems technology, nuclear technology, and battery and solar technologies.

Groundbreaking is expected in June with arrival of equipment and site preparation in the next few weeks.