Alumni Clubs:

Completion of campus master plan leads to building boom

This summer saw the publication of the final report of the University of Chicago campus master plan steering committee. Produced by the international architectural firm NBBJ, the report recommends building the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center, a new parking structure, new residence halls, the Interdivisional Research Building, and a new Graduate School of Business campus (see “Chicago Journal,” August/98, October/98, April/99).

Other major recommendations include constructing a permanent ice skating rink on the Midway, a new arts center, and a new University of Chicago Press building at the southeast corner of Dorchester Avenue and 60th Street.

“When all the dust—literally—settles,” says provost and steering committee co-chair Geoffrey Stone, JD’71, “this is going to be an even more beautiful campus that better serves the needs of the community.”

Work has already begun on the press building (see “U of C Press director Morris Philipson retires; construction on new press building begins,” p. 14), with the parking structure to follow this fall. Next year should see groundbreaking on the skating rink, the residence halls, and the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center. Planning for the research and GSB buildings is still in the early stages. All together, these projects will cost about $500 million.

“It’s been an extraordinarily successful process,” Stone says, “involving input from faculty, trustees, students, alumni, administrators, and neighbors. We have managed to site a number of extremely important buildings, which are very difficult to site on an urban campus, in a way that makes sense both for the near and the long term.”

In addition to the major projects, which should be completed in about five years, the master plan makes a number of longer-term suggestions: changes to landscaping, lighting, and signage; rethinking the medical and science quadrangles; and developing the campus south of the Midway Plaisance. Implementation of those suggestions, Stone says, will depend on the resources that are available in the future, as well as on changes in the University’s needs.

The complete campus master plan is available on the World Wide Web in PDF format at www.uchicago.edu/masterplan. A more detailed site, with timelines, maps, pictures, and updates on individual projects, is available at http://www.uchicago.edu/construction.

Here are some highlights:

• Construction of the parking structure, being designed by Cesar Pelli and Associates of New Haven, Connecticut, and OWP & P of Chicago, should get under way this fall and be finished in September 2000. Located on 55th Street between Ellis and Greenwood Avenues, the building will offer short-term and permit parking. Its 900 to 1,000 spaces will replace parking in the Ellis, Regenstein, and Stagg lots—which will be removed to make way for the new residences and athletics center, as well as the parking structure itself—and will add approximately 400 new net spaces. The structure’s ground floor will likely be used for retail stores, cafés, or offices.

• The next project off the drawing board will be the permanent skating rink, a joint effort of the University, the City of Chicago, and the Chicago Park District. Construction should begin in spring, with the rink opening by Thanksgiving 2000. Initial plans include an Olympic-size rink, a skate rental area, a café, a rooftop observation deck, and a warming house. In summer, the facility will be used for in-line skating and cultural productions. In addition, the University is working with the Chicago Park District and local community leaders on an overall plan to redevelop the Midway.

• Legorreta Arquitectos of Mexico, with VOA Associates of Chicago, has completed preliminary designs for the undergraduate residence halls to be built around the Regenstein Library. Rather than the two halls initially envisioned, Legorreta’s design calls for three buildings, housing a total of 725-750 students. The preliminary design suggests a limestone or brick exterior, with private interior courtyards for two of the residence halls, and glass towers marking the entrances and common spaces. Air-conditioned and wired for Internet access, these halls will have eight houses. Double-room suites will have two separate bedrooms with two beds each and a shared bathroom, while other suites will have two bedrooms with one bed each and a shared bathroom. First-years should comprise about three-quarters of the new buildings’ residents. Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2000 and be completed in late summer 2001. After the design for these buildings is complete, the University will decide on an architect, design, and schedule for another proposed new residence hall, next to Pierce Hall.

• Cesar Pelli’s firm is also at work on the 132,000-square-foot Gerald Ratner Athletics Center. The preliminary schematic design should be ready later this year, with groundbreaking scheduled for fall 2000 and completion scheduled for fall 2002.

• Ellenzweig and Associates, Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts, have been selected to design the 300,000-plus-square-foot Interdivisional Research Building, to be located on 57th Street between Ellis and Drexel Avenues. The firm’s experience with laboratory buildings includes designing Harvard University’s Naito Chemistry Building and Life Sciences Building.

• The University is holding a design competition to select an architect for the new Graduate School of Business campus, to be built on the current site of Woodward Court. The architect should be chosen in November.

As these projects are finished, the second phase of the master plan will focus on the re-use and re-allocation of space that will be vacated over the coming years as the new buildings are completed. Bartlett Gymnasium will be renovated as a student dining hall. The master plan also recommends that an arts center replace the Young Building at the corner of Ellis Avenue and 56th Street, forming an arts quadrangle with Cochrane-Woods, the Smart Museum, and Court Theatre. Facilities Services and the University Police department would be moved from the Young Building to a yet-to-be-determined location.—K.S.