University
of Illinois at Chicago Office of Public Affairs (MC 288)
601 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607-7113, (312) 996-3456, www.uic.edu/depts/paff
| Aug. 16, 2001 | Contact:
Mark Rosati (312) 996-5546; rosati@uic.edu Bill Burton (312) 996-2269; burton@uic.edu |
UIC OPENS NEW STUDENT RESIDENCE ON SOUTH CAMPUS
A new student residence hall that will house 310 students opened this month as part of the University of Illinois at Chicago's South Campus expansion. The student residence is the first building in the massive expansion project to be completed and was opened on schedule for the start of the new academic year.
Students will begin moving into the residence today. Most of the residents will be juniors and seniors, along with some graduate and professional students.
The student residence is one of two that will be built along Halsted Street to accommodate demand for more on-campus housing. Construction on the second building, which will house more than 400 students, is scheduled to begin this fall for completion in 2003. The buildings are designed in apartment style, with private kitchens and baths.
The South Campus development includes the new student residences, academic buildings, 930 units of market-rate residential housing (21 percent designated affordable housing), new retail establishments, parks and parking facilities. The 85-acre South Campus, bounded by Roosevelt Road to the north, 16th Street to the south, Union to the east and Morgan to the west, also includes existing athletics facilities and fields and the historic Maxwell Street police station, now being renovated for the UIC campus police.
"The development will create a dynamic new environment on the UIC campus, and the opening of the first student residence is a milestone," said Chancellor Sylvia Manning.
The construction phase of the $525-million project began in April 2000 and will continue through 2009. South Campus will generate more than $1 billion in economic activity, more than 1,000 jobs during the course of construction and more than 200 permanent jobs. A substantial percentage of jobs and contracts have been awarded to minorities, women and local residents.
Stanton Delaney, vice chancellor for administration and executive director of the project, noted that South Campus will include adaptive re-use of eight existing buildings on the east side of Halsted Street and 13 facades from buildings on Halsted, Maxwell and Roosevelt to be relocated onto new retail buildings on Maxwell Street.
"Adaptive re-use of these 21 buildings and facades, combined with the new architecture that is consistent with the look of the older buildings, means South Campus will connect with the past while pointing the way to a vibrant future for the campus and the community," Delaney said.
Restoration of the Maxwell Street police station, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, for use by the campus police is scheduled for completion later this year.
Sales of the market-rate residential housing have been brisk. All but 10 of the 278 units in Phase I of the project, which went on the market last summer, have been sold, and 100 of the 225 Phase II units that went on the market earlier this summer have been purchased. The first residential units are expected to be ready for occupancy by the spring.
- UIC -