ISU opens 220,000-square-foot Eames Complex

Idaho State University cut the ribbon on Oct. 2 to officially open the newly renovated William M. and Karin A. Eames Advanced Technical Education and Innovations Complex. The 220,000-square-foot complex cost $22 million to renovate.

The complex is the new home for the ISU College of Technology programs in automotive technology, auto-collision repair and refinishing, diesel technology, welding, computerized machining technology, and computer-aided design. The move to the renovated complex increases the number of welding booths from 40 to 61, doubles the number of vehicle lifts, and quadruples the working space available for the diesel technology program.

The new complex has given the College of Technology the ability to consolidate its hands-on programs into one building. “We are going to see many synergies from co-locating programs such as on-site power and diesel technology, which have typically been located in separate buildings across town from each other,” Scott Rasmussen told the Idaho State Journal. Rasmussen is the Dean of the College of Technology.

“The talent being produced here will either expand current opportunities in Idaho or will attract capital and better jobs to our state and that’s definitely a good thing,” Gov. Brad Little remarked while touring the facility.

ISU announced that the College of Technology would take over the former ISU Research and Innovation in Science and Research Complex in 2017. The complex would be named for alumnus William Eames and his wife Karin after the couple donated $2.5 million in the summer of 2017 to lead what would become a $5 million fundraising campaign. ISU then received $10 million for the Eames Complex from the state legislature and $2 million from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation in 2018.

In February of 2020, ISU was awarded a $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration for an add-on building for on-site power generation for the complex. An additional $1.3 million is still needed to complete the work and will be the focus of a planned future fundraising effort. The separate on-site power generation building will go out for bid around in January with a projected completion before the end of summer 2021.

The Eames Complex began life as a commercial light industrial facility for Ballard Medical Products, which closed its Pocatello operation in 2007. The building sat vacant for three years before it was purchased by ISU for $3.6 million to create the RISE Complex, which was meant to be a laboratory center for collaborative research with industry.

RISE was closed in 2016 after allegations of financial improprieties, internal problems and investigations by federal and local law enforcement agencies. It was repurposed for the College of Technology soon afterward.