The Aug. 1997 edition of the North Central Now magazine says the approval of this project was in February of this year.  It does not say what date the first hammer was swung.  But it says the project should be finished in Dec.1998.

The article goes on to say......." Joseph Kadow, project manager for the Walsh Construction Co. of Chicago, has quite a bit of experience giving new life to older buildings, but he is clearly enjoying some of the "finds" in Old Main.  The earliest photos of Old Main show multiple chimneys adorning the roof line.  Kadow reports that stripping the interior walls has  uncovered the remnants of those flues.  And while it's pretty well know at the College that molded tin ceilings are to be found in Old Main above many of the dropped ceilings of later vintage, what wasn't known (until now) was that under at least a few of those tin ceilings lies what once was some very attractive wallpaper, now badly deterioted.  Also revealed were the signatures of some unidentified men,possibly workers, scribbled in pencil on part of a wall that was later covered by other materials.  They date to the 1890s..."