Updated 12/6/2015 to reflect name of architect and add images.
The truth is, he didn’t win. He compromised. The final design for the Administration Building portal project, seen above, is simpler than this one, for example. But I think that’s a good thing. To me, asking the University to spend a lot of money blowing a hole through the perfectly good Admin Building lobby for no other reason other than it would be cool was hubris. I think I am right in saying that the portal being built now is not that expensive since the second floor is largely being kept in tact. It’s also a nice clean, understated design. Still, the fact that any version of this project is actually happening is saying a lot.
Jack Mitchell/The Campus Review
(Here’s the construction on July 10.)
Completed photos here. The firm responsible is Krueck+Sexton, who are masters at performing makeovers on somewhat difficult buildings (buildings from an unloved architectural era, for example).
Steve Wiesenthal is University Architect. Wiesenthal’s philosophy is guided by the principle that distances and spaces matter a lot. He’s the one arguing that S. Ellis Avenue is the backbone of the campus and is woefully unintegrated with the main quadrangles network as well as the Crerar Library quad. For this reason, this summer they’re tearing down one of the oldest and oddest buildings on campus, Ingleside Hall (where the Post Office was; here are pics of the North– and South-facing facades), to “open up” 58th Street to the Crerar quad aka “Science Quad.” Additionally, the University is spending substantial money to turn 58th Street into a “pedestrian way” connecting the medical and main campuses, as the press release put it. When finished it will look something like this:
(More pics here.)
Pretty cool. Now, some might say that the goal of this plan is sort of an imperialistic let’s-increase-our-acreage type thing. But I tend to think it results from Wiesenthal’s campus planning principles. The portal through the Admin Building proves it, since the portal obviously does nothing to improve the University’s posture. Wiesenthal has convinced Zimmer and everyone that better pedestrian flow and opener spaces, in direct contrast to the early 20th Century cloistered hospitals and quadrangles, are good for students and faculty. Connections encourage “informal encounters” (his words). I think he’s probably right. But I’m more into the fact that it’s an awesome and incredibly imaginative experiment. At what other college campus can one hear talk of “portals,” let alone (to use an example from the completed Midway Plaisance road crossings project by Bauer Latoza and James Carpenter Design Associates, another Wiesenthal brainchild) “light bridges” lit by giant lightsabers? And to think that the Administration is actually funding these things. It’s extravagant, yes, but far less so than Harper Library and Rockefeller Chapel were. Greatness comes at a price. I welcome it and so should we all.
The Campus Review 
