In response to a grow­ing need for park­ing and office space, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go and UMed­i­cine joined forces to cre­ate the 61^st and Drex­el Park­ing Struc­ture and Admin­is­tra­tive Cen­ter. The pro­gram accom­mo­dates 1000 cars and rough­ly 70,000 sqft of Uni­ver­si­ty office space. 

Sit­ed at the south­ern edge of cam­pus across the Mid­way Plai­sance from the University’s med­ical ​“dis­trict”, the build­ing strad­dles the uni­ver­si­ty and res­i­den­tial fab­ric of Wood­lawn. Dur­ing the design process a series of com­mu­ni­ty work­shops helped inform the mass­ing strat­e­gy which places office space in a dis­tinct plinth that enhances the streetscape and is scaled to the adja­cent res­i­den­tial buildings.

Ten­ants share a wood clad entry that brings day­light deep into the floor­plate while pro­vid­ing a secure point of access. Office space was quick­ly filled by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go Depart­ment of Safe­ty and Secu­ri­ty, Finan­cial Ser­vices, Risk Man­age­ment and Safe­ty, IT Ser­vices, and Human Resources.

Client: Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go 
Pro­gram: Park­ing garage and ten­ant ready office space 
Size: 70,000 sqft office, 300,000 sqft park­ing 
Cost: $30,000,000

Select­ed Awards/​Honors: 
Mer­it Award, Chica­go Build­ing Con­gress, 2010.

Col­lab­o­ra­tive Part­ners:
Des­man Asso­ciates (Struc­tur­al Engi­neer and Park­ing Con­sul­tant)
EME (Mechan­i­cal, Elec­tri­cal, Plumb­ing, Fire Pro­tec­tion Engi­neer)
Infra­struc­ture Engi­neer­ing (Civ­il Engi­neer)
Site Design Group (Land­scape Architect)

Pho­tog­ra­phy Cred­it: © Kate Joyce Studios