The I Hotel Conference Center expansion provides the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus and community with a dynamic new event space that nearly doubles its size, allowing it to host larger events.
The first exposure many people have with UIUC’s Research Park is the I Hotel and Conference Center. In addition to hosting companies and organizations for collaboration, conferences, and events, it bridges the university and community.
This project remedies the prior inability to cater to large conferences of 700+. The LEED Silver expansion adds 32,500 square feet to the facility, nearly doubling its size. The project includes a 12,500 square foot exhibit hall of versatile exhibit hall space that can accommodate 750 guests for a dinner reception, with seating for up to 1200 guests, and added parking.
Located adjacent to the I-Hotel, the Conference Center has been a fixture in Champaign-Urbana since 2008. A public-private partnership, the Conference Center is owned and operated by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, while the hotel is owned and managed privately.
“The expansion of the Illinois Conference Center is the result of the university’s commitment to serve our students, staff, faculty, and the Champaign-Urbana community,” said Danita M. B. Young, Ph.D., Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. “The expanded Conference Center serves as a gathering, learning, and networking space for a larger number of patrons than we have ever been able to engage with previously. The new modern facility provides students with the opportunity to display and discuss what they are learning in classrooms and labs, gain access to expert speakers, and discover chances to expand their knowledge, thanks to the access the larger conference space provides.”
