University of Illinois cancels contract with architect over possible conflict

From The Chicago Tribune: Under pressure from a state oversight panel, the University of Illinois board of trustees has canceled a multimillion-dollar contract with an architectural firm because of conflict-of-interest concerns. The university had awarded the $4.6 million contract to a firm partially owned by the husband of a university official who oversees campus construction planning. Jill Maxey, who until this week was the university's associate director of planning, is married to Bruce Maxey, a principal in the firm BLDD Architects. The contract involved renovations for the 120-year-old Natural History Building on the Urbana-Champaign campus.