Roosevelt University, Academic, Student Life and Residence Center

Chicago, Illinois

Firm

VOA Associates Incorporated

Client

Roosevelt University

Area

415,000 sq.ft.

Total Cost

$102,000,000

Completion Date

09/2012

The Wabash Expansion for Roosevelt University is a 32-story vertical campus that is adjacent and connected to the landmark Auditorium Building, designed by Adler and Sullivan. The campus sits on a small, midblock, 17,500-square-foot site. This new vertical campus is composed of connecting neighborhoods of student services, a student union, and academic and student residential environments that emphasize the "out of class" spaces vital to a university atmosphere. The building form suggests the transformational nature of a university experience.

The planning develops a "servant–served" spatial relationship through an offset core that creates the long span necessary for academic spaces. The served space is sheathed in glass, and the servant space is precast concrete. Both express the quality of "gradation" used in the stonework of the Auditorium Building.

The primary decision for sustainability was to expand on this small 17,500-square-foot site with a diverse program unique for university and high-rise construction. This projected LEED gold expansion sustains the Auditorium Building and preserves the facade of the Fine Arts Annex. It connects the urban environment of Wabash Avenue with Burnham Park and Lake Michigan, reasserting the expression of the institution as a major premise of the Burnham plan.