Chicago — A panel of five university facilities administrators named a half-dozen campus buildings in Chicago as must-sees during a session at the SCUP conference here. They included projects by three star architects — one of whom died back in 1924.

Panel members did not pretend to be impartial — each picked one project from his or her own campus, and one rounded out the list by naming a building that three universities share. But the list is no less interesting for having a whiff of enlightened self-interest about it.

The must-sees are, from north to south:

DePaul University’s Loft Right, a privately financed building with ground-floor retail and five floors of student apartments above. Opened in 2006, the $55-million building has 570 beds and is managed jointly by the university and a private company. Its glassy, contemporary exterior is matched by up-to-the-minute furnishings, but also by high rents.

Roosevelt University’s Auditorium Theater, an early — and vast — mixed-use project by the architect Louis Sullivan and his engineering partner, Dankmar Adler. Opened in 1889, the complex wrapped a 400-room luxury hotel and an office building around a 4,300 seat theater with near-perfect acoustics. Owned by Roosevelt since 1946, the building is an architectural landmark with an international reputation — but also a challenge for a university to use efficiently and maintain well. (Chronicle photograph by Lawrence Biemiller)

University Center Chicago, a 1,680-bed, 18-floor residential high-rise that is a joint project of Columbia College Chicago, DePaul, and Roosevelt. Constructed downtown at a cost of $159-million, the building opened in August 2004 with street-level retail and an amenities floor featuring a fitness center, game rooms, and more. During the summer the building becomes a conference center.

The University of Illinois at Chicago’s Student Recreation Facility, opened in March 2006 and intended as a gateway to the 24,000-student campus. Designed by PSA-Dewberry, the three-story, $29-million building offers a aquatics center with lap and leisure pools, an 18,000-square-foot fitness center, a jogging track, a multi-activity court, and more.

The Illinois Institute of Technology’s McCormick Tribune Campus Center, designed by Rem Koolhaas and constructed for $48-million, including the cost of a tube to contain the noise of elevated trains passing directly overhead. The building was designed to bring to life a dead zone between the IIT dorms and the main academic area of its landmark campus, largely designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. (Chronicle photograph by Lawrence Biemiller)

The University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, a $125-million project designed by Raphael Viñoly and opened in 2004. Located across a side street from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, this 400,000-square-foot building hides nearly half of its bulk below grade. What’s left above ground is appealing — particularly the winter garden, a six-story glass box supported on Gothic-style arches that echo the university’s original architectural style.