Building Boom Set To Begin At Northwestern
EVANSTON, Ill. (CBS) -- A building boom appears to be ahead for Northwestern University, as it plans to spend more than $150 million to build a new visitor center and two new academic buildings.
The $32 million visitor center will be housed in a 170,000 square-foot building on the Evanston campus, which was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Perkins + Will. It will include an auditorium with about 160 seats, meeting rooms, offices and, and a two-story reception area, a university release said.
The visitor center will include a 435-car parking garage. Once it is completed, the university parking office will move into the garage from its current location at 1819 Hinman Ave., the release said.
Construction on the visitor center is set to begin in the summer. It is set to be completed by early 2014.
The university is also planning for a $117 million new building for the Bienen School of Music, which will be loated just south of the Pick-Staiger Concert Hall and Regenstein Hall of Music on the south end of campus.
The building will house classrooms, teaching labs, teaching studios that will be used by choral, opera, piano and voice teachers, choral and operatic rehearsal rooms, and a 400-seat recital hall, according to a Northwestern. Architectural firm Goettsch Partners is in charge of the design.
In the summer of 2013, construction will begin on new Evanston campus building for the Kellogg School of Management. The building will house the full-time Kellogg MBA program and the Department of Economics, which will move from the Jacobs Center on Sheridan Road, Northwestern said.
The new building will house classrooms, offices, gathering spaces, and what the university calls "flexible learning environments." It will measure about 350,000 gross square feet.
Toronto-based Kuwabara, Payne, McKenna, Blumberg Architects is designing the new Kellogg building, which will be completed by the fall of 2016.
Finally, Northwestern plans to demolish its old boathouse at the southern end of campus, and replace it with a new, 5,000 square-foot Sailing Center. The new facility will be home to the Northwestern sailing team and the Midwest Collegiate Sailing Association, and will house a fleet of sailboats and windsurfing gear, the university said.
Northwestern has yet to announce what it will do with the old Roycemore School building, just west of the main campus as 640 Lincoln St. At the beginning of the calendar year, the private school moved to another building at 1200 Davis St. in downtown Evanston, after Northwestern decided not to renew the school's 99-year lease when it expires in 2014.
The 96-year-old old Roycemore building has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1987, for its open Prairie-style floor plan by architect Lawrence Buck. It is also part of the Evanston Historic District and thus, will not be torn down.
But the U-1 zoning for the area means that the university is free to reuse the space for classrooms, faculty offices or dorms, among other uses, the Daily Northwestern reported in December.
