Mannie Jackson Center for the Humanities

The old Lincoln School site on Main Street in Edwardsville, Illinois has been transformed into the Mannie Jackson Center for the Humanities. Visions for the historic Lincoln School building came to life by restoring the facility and constructing a new addition to accommodate humanities programs. In association with this project, Oates provided property and topographic survey and civil engineering services, which included the layout of ADA ramps, sidewalks and parking as well as utility coordination.

A groundbreaking was held in 2014 for the Center for Humanities and since, the project has grown into a greater concept. Oates conducted a site assessment for the addition of a conference center to seat 1,000 people, a multi-story STEM center, hotel, and parking garage. The full scope of services included topographic surveys; property surveys; site programming/ layout; detention, utility, and earthwork analysis; and structural programming/ layout.

The analysis included conceptual planning for the site using the architect’s conceptual building layouts. Access and parking lot evaluation included parking computations based on City Ordinances. Conceptual grading and earthwork planning assumed rough finished floor elevations for the buildings. Structural recommendations were provided based on coordination with the architect on structural elements and geotechnical engineering analyses.