University of Chicago
Masterpieces of the Midway
Materialize in Hyde Park
César Pelli might have done the design equivalent of an all-nighter for the University of Chicago. In the early 2000s, Pelli was named to be the architect for the Gerald C. Ratner Athletics Center, the first physical education building constructed on the Hyde Park campus in more than 50 years.
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Mixed-Use Residential

Welcome to the Villages of Chicago!
Population: 2.9 Million
Walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods have been attracting yuppies as well
as empty nesters to downtown Chicago for more than a decade. Now, with peak gasoline prices and global warming concerns, the urban planning
concept called an "urban village" is even more appealing.
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Downtown Milwaukee

Condo Construction Creating
Boomtown in Brewtown
The tap is definitely on in downtown Milwaukee. The flow in housing construction began in the late 1990s with mainly rental units, but that has steadily increased to a stream of condo projects. "There's a flight to the city today, which is quite a reversal of a trend that was about migrating away from the cities up until about 10 years ago," says John Hunzinger, president of Brookfield, Wis.-based Hunzinger Construction Co.
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BIM is In

Midwest Contractors Take Lead
On Building Information Modeling
As building information modeling evolves from a buzzword to a best practice across the industry, some Midwest firms find themselves on the leading edge of the trend. BIM-which allows a project to be designed in 3D around a database that details a building's physical and functional characteristics-may seem like a tool reserved for the architectural and engineering world, but many regional contractors are now banking on it.
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Building, Road Projects

Growth Raising Kane
In Area Near Chicago Kane County, about 40 mi west of Chicago, is experiencing one of the fastest growth spurts in the country. In 2000, the population numbered 404,199, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Six years later that number had grown to an estimated 494,000, an increase of more than 22% and one that surpassed projections for 2010.
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Alexian Bros. Expansion

How to Shoehorn an
Addition into a Medical Center
It's taking a tower crane-and maybe a shoehorn-to transform the campus of Alexian Bros. Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, Ill. Construction of a new bed tower and outpatient "mall"-all squeezed into a courtyard surrounded by existing buildings-is under way.
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A National Overview

BIM Designs a New Way of Working
The growing acceptance and rapid evolution of building information modeling in recent years has construction industry firms overhauling the way they do business. BIM is the logical successor to CAD, moving design from 2D drawing into the 3D world and offering a virtual look at future buildings and structures. Rather than just lines on a screen, objects are "intelligent," backed by a database of information about their physical and functional characteristics.
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