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November 11, 2009, 10:42 AM ET
11-Story Tower Will Mark New Arts Complex at U. of Chicago
The U. of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts is due to open in 2012. (U. of Chicago images)
On Tuesday evening the University of Chicago unveiled plans for a $114-million, 170,000-square-foot arts complex with an 11-story tower, sheathed in stone and glass, that seems certain to become a local landmark. The building, designed by the New York architecture firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, is to be constructed beside the city's famous Midway Plaisance, now the southern edge of the campus and once the pleasure grounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Groundbreaking is set for next spring, and the facility is expected to open in 2012.
The university says the complex is intended to be "a hub of cross-boundary, experimental artistry," uniting arts departments and undertakings that are now scattered around the campus. Performance spaces will include an auditorium and black-box and proscenium theaters. The complex will also offer rehearsal and screening space, galleries, classrooms, and studios for visual artists with skylights positioned to get daylight from the north. The tower, the university says, will be "punctuated with light, open-air terraces and rooftop decks" and will offer "unparalleled views of the Chicago skyline."
The complex is named after Reva and David Logan, alumni who two years ago committed $35-million toward its cost. The firm headed by Mr. Williams and Ms. Tsien was chosen after a competition that also attracted Hans Hollein, of Vienna; Morphosis, of Santa Monica, Calif.; Fumihiko Maki and Associates, of Tokyo; and Studio Daniel Libeskind, of New York.
Comments
1. 11134193 - November 11, 2009 at 04:28 pm
11134193
Looks like a great design for an arts center at the University of Chicago campus. How about showing Chronicle viewers the competors' designs for their proposed buildings for this project. It would be enlightening to see the varied interpretations.
Thanks, Stan Wollock, Wiilliam Paterson University, Wayne, NJ.
2. barberic - November 18, 2009 at 11:31 am
Terrific plan. I can see why this is my son's first choice on the application list.
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