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Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory

Newmark Lab Main Entrance
Location:	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Address:	205 N. Matthews Ave.
Dedicated to:	Nathan M. Newmark
Constructed:	1967
Storeys:	4 including basement
Use:	Educational

Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory is a four story building on the University of Illinois campus, housing the Civil and Environmental engineering department. It is also known as the Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory (NSEL), or Newmark Lab for short. It is located at 205 N. Matthews Avenue in Urbana. Newmark Lab is an educational and research facility, and is home to the civil engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Newmark Lab was built in 1967 and named after professor and department head Nathan M. Newmark. The building consists of classrooms and offices surrounding a large open area called the Crane Bay, where much of the university's structural analysis and research is done. An addition called the M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Student Center has been approved and will begin construction soon, and will add more classrooms and student study space.

History

Newmark Lab was constructed in 1967 and extended in 1971. This building is named in memory of Nathan M. Newmark. Newmark completed M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1932 and 1934 in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He then became a professor of Civil Engineering at University of Illinois in 1943. In 1956 he was appointed head of the Civil Engineering Department and held this position until 1973. Newmark retired in 1976 with title of Professor Emeritus.

Nathan Newmark's numerous honors include the 1968 National Medal of Science from President Lyndon B. Johnson; the Washington Award (1969), an award given collectively by the major engineering societies of the United States; the John Fritz Medal (1979); and the 16th Gold Medal in the 57-year history of the Institution of Structural Engineers of Great Britain (1980). Only one other American engineer has received this medal, Hardy Cross who also served on faculty of the civil engineering department of the University of Illinois. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) honored Newmark with the James R. Croes Medal (1945), the Mosseiff Award (1950), the Norman Medal, the Ernest E. Howard Award (1958), and the Theodore von Karman Medal (1962). He received the Wason Medal of the American Concrete Institute (1950) and the Vincent Bendix Award from the American Society for Engineering Education (1961).

Uses

Newmark Lab is an educational facility. It houses the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana campus. This facility includes classrooms, faculty offices, chemistry labs, storage rooms, and the Crane Bay. Newmark also contains a professional machine shop where students and faculty can have material fabricated by the staffed professionals, and a student instrumentation workshop where students and faculty can can fabricate materials themselves. The department also has many student and professional research organizations that use Newmark's facilities for various projects and events.

Civil Engineering Student Organizations that use Newmark Facilities

American Society of Civil Engineers - This society is a student chapter of the national professional organization. ASCE uses Newmark for many social and service events.

American Concrete Institute - This society is a student chapter of the national professional organization. ACI uses Newmark for general meetings and other events.

Steel Bridge Team - The Steel Bridge Team designs, fabricates and assembles a steel bridge every year in a competition against teams from other universities. The team fabricates many of their parts in the student workshop of Newmark, and assembles the bridge and stores it in the crane bay. They also store bridges from previous years in the basement of Newmark.

Boneyard Yacht Club - Concrete Canoe Team fabricates and then races a concrete canoe every year in a competition against teams from other universities. The canoe team fabricates their canoe in the basement of Newmark, and displays canoes of previous years on a wall of the crane bay.

Professional Research Organizations that use Newmark Facilities

Mid-American Earthquake Center - The MAE Center at UIUC is one of three national earthquake engineering research centers established by the National Science Foundation. It's offices are located on the first floor of Newmark Laboratory.

Crane Bay

Newmark Lab Crane Bay

The Crane Bay is a large open area in the center of Newmark Laboratory with a three story height. It is where much of the department's structural research and testing is done.There are large doors on both the north and south sides of this area, where trucks and equipment can move through. The Crane Bay gets its name from two large yellow hydraulic cranes on rails above the room, which move heavy equipment around. The crane bay houses many structural analysis equipment, including a concrete cylinder crusher for strength tests and beam deflection measurement devices. There is also a twenty eight foot tall L-shaped concrete reaction wall with hydraulic actuators, which was added in 2004. The crane bay's large open size is also sometimes used for departmental events such as Engineering Open House and the department's annual career fair.

M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Student Center

The M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Student Center is an addition to be built on the north-west corner of Newmark Laboratory. Mr. Yeh is originally from Shanghai, China, and graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois in 1953 with a B.S. degree. Mr. Yeh is chairman of Hsin Chong International Holdings, Ltd., a large construction company in China. Previously, Mr. Yeh established the M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Graduate Research Fellowship and the M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Endowed Chair, both in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Mr. Yeh has given a $4 million gift to help cover the cost of this $9 million project. The remainder of the funding comes from private sources including alumni and corporate sponsors, and $1.0 million contributions by both the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the College of Engineering. It will be 20,500 square feet, including seven classrooms, a conference room, and student study and sitting areas. It is scheduled to open for fall 2010 classes.