Investment in Facilities

A steady stream of new facilities has transformed campus since the campaign’s quiet phase began in 2000. Many of those buildings were firsts.

• Opened in 2001, the Max Palevsky [PhB’48, SB’48] Residential Commons was the first new residence hall since the 1960s, bringing undergrads back to the center of campus.
• In 2003, the Gerald Ratner [PhB’35, JD’37] Athletics Center became the first new athletics facility in 60 years.
• In September 2004, Chicago Booth moved into a $125 million teaching and office space that Chicago Trustee Dennis J. Keller, MBA’68, calls “the best business-school facility in the United States.” Keller, chair of the board’s Alumni Relations and Development Committee; fellow Trustee David G. Booth, MBA’71; and Robert Rothman, MBA’77; among many others, helped underwrite the building’s cost. In 2007, it became the Charles M. Harper Center, after Harper, MBA’50, made a generous gift to the school.
• Early in 2005, the first patients arrived at Comer Children’s Hospital, a 155-bed facility named for Gary and Frances Comer, who gave more than $84 million to support pediatric medicine at Chicago.
• In April 2006, the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Center for Integrative Science welcomed the first wave of 800 senior scientists, researchers, and students working at the intersection of the biological and physical sciences; by fall the 400,000-square-foot building had reached full occupancy.

The Boom Continues

The ten-story Gwen and Jules Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery opens in 2009, providing labs for researchers who focus on translating basic science into clinical care, while the Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust are underwriting renovation of the Searle Chemistry Laboratory. The Joe [AB’78, MBA’80] and Rika [AB’91] Mansueto Library will provide another 20-plus years of growing space for the library’s print collections when it opens in 2010 beside the Regenstein Library, which received additional support from the Regenstein Foundation. With a $10 million gift from the family of Earl Shapiro, U-High’56, the University’s Laboratory Schools will build an early learning center and renovate older facilities, steps in a master plan calling for increased enrollment and financial aid.

Across the Midway, a new residence hall and dining facility means that more undergraduates can live in College housing, while the Reva [X’41] and David [AB’39, JD’41] Logan Center for Creative and Performing Arts, to be completed in 2011, will be a hub for visual arts, music, filmmaking, and performance, and a link with the city’s arts communities.