The renovation of Engineering Hall has been completed, and the occupants have moved back in. The 106-year-old building has all-new lighting and completely refinished wood paneling. The historic building boasts a new roof, drop ceilings, floors, windows, and electrical systems. The building also has air conditioning for the first time in its existence.

Perhaps the most dramatic change is the outside of the building, which has been scrubbed, removing decades of accumulated grime from its bricks. In addition, the north wing, which formerly housed the Engineering Library, now houses four new classrooms and a new entrance leading out onto a soon-to-be landscaped garden and terrace overlooking the Boneyard Creek.

Engineering Hall is just one aspect of the engineering campus that is being beautified. The Quad–bounded by the Grainger Library on the north, the Mechanical Engineering Lab on the east, Engineering Hall on the south, and Talbot Lab on the west–has been relandscaped and named the Bardeen Quadrangle in honor of John Bardeen, the University of Illinois professor who won two Nobel Prizes in physics. Bardeen is the only person to be so honored twice in the same field. This project was made possible by The Grainger Foundation Inc.

The newly landscaped garden outside the north entrance to Engineering Hall, which will be bounded by the Boneyard Creek to the north, the Burrill Avenue walkway on the west, an observation deck to the east, and Engineering Hall to the south, also will be named in honor of Bardeen.

To the east of the Bardeen Quad, the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory is getting a facelift. An addition that will create new research and teaching laboratories, faculty and graduate assistant offices, a 1,200-square-foot meeting center, and other gathering and study spaces is scheduled to be completed in 2001. The exterior renovation will include removing both the 40-year-old sheet metal structure on the fifth floor–affectionately known as the "penthouse"–and the elevator equipment room on the top of the building (replacing it with a hydraulic elevator). These two changes will greatly improve the appearance of the building, which will further enhance the Engineering Quadrangle.