| Completion 11: University Center
of Chicago
Cost: $151 million The University Center
of Chicago, an 18-story student residence in the city's South Loop, is reportedly
the nation's largest multi-university dormitory.
The facility offers a
range of options to complement practically any student lifestyle and support student
education needs.
The 702,000-sq.-ft. residence hall houses 1,680 undergraduate,
graduate and professional students from Columbia College, DePaul University and
Roosevelt University and 43 resident staff members. The facility boasts a variety
of student housing options and amenities and hosts a full-service, year-round
conference center for educational and corporate clients, summer housing and 31,000-sq.-ft.
of commercial space on the ground floor.
The three universities jointly
developed the project and created the Educational Advancement Fund, a nonprofit
corporation, to maintain the building.
The student and staff residences
are on floors three through 18 of the E-shaped building.
The north side
has suite-style units, and the south side features apartments.
Every residential
floor has a lounge and study room, and there are student-specific housing sections
for undergraduate students and graduate or professional students.
The north
side houses 46 deluxe doubles suites and 234 quad semi-suites.
The south
side offers 143 quad four-bedroom apartments, 14 quad two-bedroom apartments and
24 studio apartments.
An enclosed communal great room on the third floor
features a large gas fireplace with stone mantel. Doors on either side of the
fireplace open to a 20,000-sq.-ft. garden terrace with trees, shrubs and flowers. Carefully
Planned Erection Completing the building in two years was
a primary goal, and the building was erected in two different sections that saved
about three months.
The larger south tower was constructed first, the north
tower came next and a 16-ft.-long pour strip, or gap, was temporarily left to
separate the two.
Turner Construction Co., the general contractor, chose
to use two tower cranes and expedited the south tower, which included the elevator
cores, the mechanical, electrical and plumbing-intensive apartments, cafeteria
and penthouse mechanical room.
The concentration on the south tower allowed
early installation of the exterior precast concrete panels and building enclosure
for interior apartment build-out.
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