Two renovation projects to historic, former residential houses on the east side of campus are underway.
First, the Human Development building at 5730 S. Woodlawn Avenue will get a rear addition and ADA accessibility. Human Development will leave, presumably, as it will become the new home of the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) and the Committee on International Relations (CIR) graduate program. CIR and MAPSS are both located in Pick Hall, which is getting quite cramped. Pick houses the Political Science Department as well as programs like the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
Below, a rendering by McGuire Igleski & Associates, who will be completing the adaptive reuse project (HSR Associates is overseeing the project), and a screenshot of map imagery of the work as of October:
McGuire Igleski & Associates, Inc.
Nearmap
The newly renovated and expanded facility will “provide the programs with reception and lounge spaces as well as offices and meeting rooms,” according to the architects.
According to this somewhat sketchy site, the budget is about $1 million. It is not clear when it will be completed, but probably by December of 2016.
The project is somewhat more difficult that it would appear because of a tension between accessibility and preservation–a dilemma that the ADA created for almost every old institutional building seeking renovation. The preservation issue comes up because the University voluntarily granted preservation easements to front facades of buildings on this corridor of Woodlawn to Landmarks Illinois as part of a deal struck with the community called Institutional Planned Development 43 (PD43). This agreement came about after the University bought what is now Saieh Hall for Economics; the community was alarmed because they believed, probably correctly, that the University wanted to tear down some of the historic houses to build a new addition to Saieh. Ultimately, the University preserved those houses and connected them to the large new-construction Saieh annex in the rear, a solution that cost more money but ended up being better architecture (a wonderful if rare example of Hyde Park NIMBYism working out well for all parties).
As reported by the Hyde Park Herald, required public meeting were held for the 5730 S. Woodlawn project and the University obtained the permission of Landmarks Illinois to lower the front entrance (while raising the grade of the front yard) to make the building’s front door handicap accessible without the University’s needing to build a ramp. Lowering the door and the floor just past the door on the inside is a tricky thing to do, especially because of a mosaic that the University intends to keep. Mosaics are obviously not easy things to move.
According to a Facilities survey, the 5730 S. Woodlawn building was built in 1896 by Harvey L. Paige. It was originally an apartment occupied by University professors Frank Tarbell, Ernst Freund, and Joseph Iddings. The University purchased it in 1952.
The second renovation project is at the former Student Counseling building, 5737 S. University Avenue, which will open in Spring 2017 as the new home of the Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge (SIFK). Student Counseling already moved in 2014 to Alumni House. SIFK, announced in April 2015, is an ambitious effort to “bring together scholars from many fields to examine the historical, social and intellectual circumstances that give rise to different kinds of knowledge, and to assess how this knowledge shapes the modern world.” It was named in recognition of a $10 million donation from trustee Steve G. Stevanovich (for whom the Stevanovich Center for Financial Mathematics, just three houses up the street, is also named).
No renderings yet for the renovation project, though the architect has been chosen: Kansas City-based BNIM, a large firm that touts its focus on sustainability. BNIM was the architect of record on Steven Holl’s Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Moshe Safdie’s remarkable Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The renovation project should cost around $1 million as well.
According to Facilities, the house was built in 1897 by Howard Van Doren Shaw, and was originally the George E. Vincent residence. It was purchased by the University in 1965.
There is a risk with this second project of losing a beautiful arts-and-crafts living room. It would be sad if the architects demolish it.
The Campus Review 