Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and officials from three Chicago universities participated June 3 in a groundbreaking ceremony for construction of University Center of Chicago, which will be the largest multi-college student residence hall in the nation when it opens in the summer of 2004.

Joining Mayor Daley at the historic groundbreaking were Warrick L. Carter, president of Columbia College Chicago, Rev. John P. Minogue, president of DePaul University and Theodore L. Gross, president of Roosevelt University. The three South Loop colleges have formed a nonprofit corporation called the Educational Advancement Fund (EAF) to develop the 1,720-bed facility.

Also participating in the groundbreaking were Alderman Burton Natarus, Alderman Madeline Haithcock and Ken McHugh, executive vice president for Operations at DePaul and president of the EAF.

University Center is being constructed at the southeast corner of State Street and Congress Parkway on land donated by the city of Chicago to the EAF. Formerly a city-owned parking lot, the site is located near each of the schools.

"My father told me that the key to the city are the educational facilities, the medical facilities and the cultural facilities. They are the backbone of the city," Daley said during the morning groundbreaking ceremony.

The mayor also commended the three South Loop universities for being "in the vanguard of growth and redevelopment in this area."

University Center will be 18 stories tall and cost approximately $150 million. It is being funded by proceeds of tax-exempt and taxable bonds, which recently were sold through senior underwriter Salomon Smith Barney.

The new building will help meet the strong need for student housing in the South Loop. A survey conducted by Scion Group LLC, a student-housing consultant hired by the EAF, showed that a shortage of student housing exists in downtown Chicago.

Factors contributing to the housing shortage are a record number of university and college enrollments in the city, the growing popularity of urban campuses, continuing increases in local land and housing costs, and the conversion of rental properties to condominiums.

University Center is expected to provide a number of public and economic benefits to the South Loop by transforming an underutilized property into a retail, residential and educational facility.

On the first floor, there will be approximately 31,000 square feet of retail space with frontage on State Street that will provide new shopping options for area residents and workers.

A 30,000-square-foot student food service facility will be located on the second floor. This floor also will contain student amenities including lounges, music practice rooms, a fitness center, art rooms, offices, multimedia rooms, game rooms, laundries, and conference rooms.

Student residences will be located on floors three and above. Five different types of suites and apartments will be available with rents expected to range from $625 to $985 per month. In addition to student living quarters, the third floor will provide access to a 20,000-square-foot landscaped roof garden for students.

Designed by Antunovich Associates, a Chicago architectural firm, University Center will fit in with the scale and style of other buildings that surround the site, including the Harold Washington Library, which is located diagonally across Congress Parkway. VOA Associates Inc. is the project’s associate architectural firm.

The two-story retail base of the building will be clad in limestone, granite, aluminum and glass. The upper floors will be designed with glass, fiber-reinforced concrete or pre-cast elements and aluminum and glass operable windows.

The general contractor of University Center is Turner Construction Company. The structural engineer is Chris P. Stefanos Associates and the MEP and RP engineer is WMA Consulting Engineers, Ltd.

Editor's Note: For more information about University Center, see the September 24, 2001, news release, "Three Chicago Colleges Collaborate to Build the Nation's Largest Multi-College Student Residence Hall," on this Web site: newsroom.depaul.edu

Media Contacts: Robin Florzak, DePaul University, 312-362-8592; Laura Janota, Roosevelt University, 312-341-3511; Priscilla Hunter, Columbia College, 312-344-7805