GreyCityAutumn2011

darren leow

| the chicago maroon

November 29, 2011 The Chicago Maroon’s Quarterly Magazine

UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT Positively 53rd Street

Logan on the rise

The way things work

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Editor’s Note The grey city journal first ran as a weekly supplement to the chicago maroon from 1968 to 1993. With its name shortened to grey city and a new quarterly schedule, the magazine started up again in the spring of 2008. We now strive to present longer, more in-depth pieces on the University community. With our eleventh issue, we wanted to do something completely new. For the first time, all of our articles center around one theme: University development.

Any U of C student or Hyde Park resident will have noticed that there is a lot of construction going on both around the neighborhood and on campus.

However, many may not know that the vast majority of it is backed by the University. This is nothing new, either; the University’s influence on what the neighborhood has to offer extends back to its founding, continuing into the ’50s and ’60s with Hyde Park’s urban renewal, and will reach well into the future with the Memorandum of Understanding.

In this issue, we approach the University and its hand in construction from many sides. You can expect to see who’s in charge of development in Hyde Park (“Building the future”), what drives development (“A matter of (mis)understanding” and “Open for business”), and everything in between. We hope that you walk away from this issue of grey city with a better understanding of the story behind the shops and buildings you see every day.

Thanks for reading and happy holidays.

—Editors Hayley Lamberson and Adam Janofsky

HAYLEY LAMBERSON ADAM JANOFSKY

EDITORS

CAMILLE VAN HORNE

MANAGING EDITOR

DOUGLAS EVERSON, JR.

DESIGN

DARREN LEOW JAMIE MANLEY

PHOTO

ALEX GLECKMAN JOHNNY HUNG

ALICE BLACKWOOD GABE VALLEY LILY YE

Positively 53rd Street

COPY EDITORS

Logan on the rise

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CHICAGO MAROON

Didn’t get the memo

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1212 East 59th Street

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Chicago, IL 60637

Construction on the Logan Art Center is currently under way. The building is slated to open its doors to students in the spring. johnny hung | the chicago maroon

Hyde Park nightlife

» Page 12 Phone: 773-834-1611

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The way things work

Building the future

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chicagomaroon@uchicago.edu

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www.chicagomaroon.com

darren leow

| the chicago maroon

positively

53rd street

BY JORDAN LARSON

The new Harper Court opened to a modest crowd with a groundbreaking ceremony on November 16. A large podium and banners stood in front of a vast lot of dirt ,indicating that construction had just begun. Most of those in attendance were involved with the project in some way. President Robert Zimmer, alderman Will Burns, and others spoke to commemorate the groundbreaking and the future of Hyde Park retail. Then the Kenwood Academy band began to play and everyone rushed into Park 52 for free hors d’oeuvres and heat. The official opening was officially over.

Though Harper Court is the main attraction, it’s only a part of a multi-million dollar redevelopment project extending down 53rd Street all the way to Lake Park.

The project is a collaboration between the University and the city of Chicago, with funding coming from both. While much attention

has been paid to community feedback, some Hyde Parkers see the redevelopment as a worrying departure from the old Hyde Park.

According to University spokesman Steve Kloehn, the decision to redevelop Harper Court was largely about attracting and retaining top faculty and staff members. “Drawing people in and keeping them is a top, top priority,” he said.

However, community and student input also played a part in shaping the development plans. The years 2007 and 2008 were largely spent gathering survey information from students, residents, and faculty regarding what to bring to Hyde Park. There were market studies, email surveys, focus groups to begin assessing the situation, and groups of students were brought to 53rd Street with administrators to figure out “what was it about this street that they didn’t like,” according to the University’s associate vice

president of civic engagement, Susan Campbell.

Workshops were presented by the Alderman’s office, the University, and the South East Chicago Commission—a private committee founded in 1952 to combat crime in the neighborhood, but which now focuses on development.

“We’ve been hearing increasingly and consistently from faculty, students, and staff about the lack of available retail choices in Hyde Park, and how they had to leave the neighborhood to just satisfy basic shopping needs other than grocery and food,” Campbell said. The businesses slated to move into the 1.1 million square foot Harper Court and the surrounding area include a movie theater, LA Fitness, a Hyatt Place hotel (the community’s number one request), and Whole Foods.

Many of the so-called necessities listed in the proposal are geared towards adults with families, with

The historic Checkerboard Lounge will have new neighbors come summer 2013 with the devolpment of Harper Court. darren leow | the chicago maroon 4 | Volume 11

the benefits trickling down to students. A promotional pamphlet for the new Harper Court lists “a good

“Five Guys are everywhere,” [Friedman] said. “We don’t need that.” manicure,” “an artisanal beer,” and “a wine bar” as “basic city life essentials,” and goes on to say that all these things can only be found at least six miles away.

The development’s first project seen to completion was Five Guys, which opened Labor Day. The burger joint has already garnered a cult following with its flashy soda machine, spotless interior, and attainable fast food.

Despite the instant popularity of Five Guys, many have decried its unoriginality and unfair advantage over smaller, locally-based businesses. Small-business owner and lifelong Hyde Park resident Daniel Friedman remarked on the decision to bring in a chain restaurant.

“Five Guys are everywhere,” he said. “We don’t need that.”

But Campbell and others affiliated with the University remain optimistic. She believes that there is room for shiny new chain stores and older locally-owned businesses.

“I know that the community and students have expressed a need and a desire to have more local entrepenuer, home-grown, organic businesses there. But I think for the street to be successful you need to have a mix,” Campbell said. “You need the nationals for instant credibility and name recognition, but hopefully that will not dominate the retail scene and that can be peppered or even mixed successfully with local businesses.”

A sign posted on 53rd Street announces the construction of a new commercial movie theater. darren leow | the chicago maroon While the jointly-owned Calypso Café and Dixie Kitchen, former Hyde Park staples, chose to close rather than occupy spaces in the redeveloped Harper Court, several small businesses have opened up on 53rd Street during the past year, such as Z-Berry, Café 53, and Big Girl Makeup Bar & Spa. And the businesses have thrived despite construction complications, which range from construction workers taking up parking spots to reduced traffic to the area.

Campbell believes existing businesses in the area have benefited, as well.

“I think it’s hard to measure and quantify exactly what that benefit has been, whether it’s been an increase in sales or an increase in awareness,” she said. “It’s an increase in awareness. And so they don’t see that translate directly into their cashiers’ box, but I do think over time it will.”

The influx of big business isn’t the only thing worrying neighborhood residents, though. Hyde Park has always been a very diverse neighborhood, but some fear that will change with this new development project. The involvement of the South East Chicago Commission is troublesome for Jesse Sinaiko, a business owner and son of the late University Professor Herman Sinaiko. He remembers the SECC as a committee targeted not towards safety but towards “social engineering and raising the income level” during the ’50s when African-Americans began moving into the neighborhood. Some are afraid to see stores like Whole Foods as another step in this process.

There is a lot to be said for the dazzing glass structure that is to be Harper Court. With Phase I of the project expected to open fully in summer 2013, development still has a long way to go. However,

there have been a few small victories for students, like a 24-hour diner and a commercial movie theater that takes a minute—not an hour—to get to.

It’s still hard to say if Hyde Park will ever have a truly college neighborhood, one that, like other campuses seems to blend the needs of students and community members into one organic space. What’s even more difficult to determine is who, outside of University student and faculty, will eventually shop and live in Hyde Park? Are the new retail options with 53rd street development signaling a new Hyde Parker?

“We are seeing a slow change in momentum,” Campbell said. “I think what our office has been really successful in is really helping the community understand what the challenges are, what kind of things that they can do to combat those challenges, and it’s going to take time.

It’s going to take a long time.”

Grey City | 5

johnny hung

| the chicago maroon

artistic depiction courtesy of the logan arts center at the university of chicago

logan on the rise

By Christina Pillsbury

Amidst wood chips, dust, and lumber at the construction site on 60th street and Ingleside, workers in yellow vests and hard hats carry materials, yell directions, and fire up loud machinery. Despite this chaos, the distinct outline of the Logan Arts Center (LAC) juts high above the Midway.

For the past ten years Bill Michel, director of the LAC, has been working with administrators, students, architects, and outside artists to create a building that would help foster collaboration among the different arts organizations on campus. But Michel is quick to point out that the LAC will serve as a supplement for much of what’s already on campus, not a complete replacement.

“This will be a center for arts activity on campus, not the center,” Michel said. “We still want arts to take place all over campus.”

A group of students and faculty from major on-campus arts groups are already developing ways to use the center’s 11 floors.

Michel’s meetings with committees of students and faculty have governed the process since the beginning; and two weeks ago, a new student advisory board had its first meeting under the auspices of Michel, who coordinated the discussion with the help of Student Government Vice President for Student Affairs Meher Kairon. The meeting focused on the spring soft-opening celebration; board members pitched ideas and provided feedback for the proposed three-day event.

As the SG liaison, Kairon also works to represent smaller arts groups. At the advisory board meeting, she said one proposal that was popular was a 24-hour opening party. As a major part of the celebration, theatrics, musical performances, art installations, and other events would continuously take place inside and outside of the building.

Much of the facade of the building, designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, will be glass windows from which patrons can look over the campus all the way to Navy Pier. Small gardens on the LAC’s lower-level rooftops (part of the initiative to make the building silver-LEED certified) will be visible from the top floors.

Other major features include patios that can be used for solo artistry or small performances, a scenery-building shop adjoined to a prop-making shop, a 150-seat black box theater, and a 470-seat performance hall.

Kairon’s favorite part of the building is in a film classroom--a curved wall that she called an “infinite background,” meant to give the illusion that horizon shots are endless.

By Spring 2012, the debris will be replaced by the 11-floor Logan Arts Center, and actors, dancers, painters, and singers will take the place of construction workers. Michel has brought members of the arts community through the site, and by just looking, he sees the potential at work, “I already see the energy around collaboration and working together,” he said. “You see the seeds of what’s really going to be possible in this building.”

A MATTER OF

(MIS) UNDERSTANDING

BY ADAM JANOFSKY

On a Saturday morning in late May, Rahm Emanuel strode into City Hall to begin his first weekend as Chicago’s 55th mayor.

The first item on his agenda was a 45-minute meeting with University of Chicago president Robert Zimmer, executive vice president David Greene, associate vice president for facilities Steven Wiesenthal, and Sonia Malunda, who was representing the University’s office of civic engagement.

Emanuel and Zimmer had discussed the matter at hand before, if only informally.

The University of Chicago, as Zimmer is quick to tout, had established an entire 23,000square-foot

darren leow

| the chicago maroon

8 | Volume 11

academic center in Beijing in less than three years. An ad hoc committee submitted a proposal for the center’s creation in October 2008 and it was opened in Summer 2010. The same rapid development could be happening on the University’s home turf, if only it weren’t for bureaucratic red tape and permits.

As mayor-elect, Emanuel heard this and asked his economic development team to figure out a partnership between the U of C and the city, which had never formally happened in the University’s 120-year history.

A few months later on one of Emanuel’s first days in office, top officials from both institutions were hammering out details for what would become the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): a 9-page document that addresses, among other things, streamlined permits, collaboration between the U of C and the city on public infrastructure, and $1.7 billion in capital projects.

“We had a few goals going into the meeting,” said Malunda, the point person for the MOU. “We wanted to convey the University’s $1.7 billion investment over the next five years in campus and capital construction... Second—creating more efficient ways to streamline government, foster economic growth, create jobs—those were all major priorities for [Emanuel] as a new mayor. That tied in nicely with the University’s desire to efficiently work with the city to streamline the city’s approval processes to create jobs and rebuild the campus.

“The third one was really around the community and economic development... the mayor’s office was viewing the University as an anchor institution, and part of the discussion was, ‘How could we as a city leverage our resources with the University’s resources to help rebuild the community and provide economic development around this anchor.’”

Upon its August unveiling, Mayor Emanuel called the MOU a “historic cooperation agreement with the University of Chicago,” and both parties heralded it as representing a new partnership that

What can the Memorandum of Understanding do for Chicago’s South Side?

PROS

CONS

1. Streamlined permit process means that buildings will open in a shorter amount of time.

1. Increased university presence throughout much of the South Side, not just Hyde Park.

2. New jobs for South Siders, with a focus on opportunities for women and minorities.

2. Increased concern of University’s demolition of historic buildings.

3. Revamped Metra stations will provide a better way to get to and from Hyde Park.

3. University intervention into South Side culture.

would help foster a brighter economic future for Chicago’s South Side.

Although the MOU is highly important for Hyde Park’s future and massive in scale, it remains a completely foreign concept to Hyde Park residents and U of C students, many of whom give blank stares when asked to describe what the “Memorandum of Understanding” is. And for those who do know of the collaboration, many are skeptical of its contribution to the South Side. Recently this divide has sparked community concerns that may threaten several University development plans and curb the MOU’s power.

A marriage of monoliths The University of Chicago is the second largest private employer in the city, next to DePaul University. With an endowment that grew to $6.31 billion this year, a campus that covers 214 acres, and over 17,000 employees, the University is a machine of expansion: in addition to the Center in Beijing, recent projects include a similar center in Delhi, the William Eckhardt Research Center, the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library,

and the South Campus Residence Hall.

Add these major developments to the thousands of smaller projects—from the renovation of the Regenstein Library’s lobby to replacing the roof of Ida Noyes Hall—and you have one of the biggest spenders in Chicago. When University administrators reviewed future development plans, they came up with a total projected cost of $1.7 billion over the next five years and $3.5 billion over the next ten. To put this in perspective, the U of C spends the equivalent of DePaul University’s entire endowment every eight months, only on construction and development projects.

Perhaps the main difference between the University of Chicago and other private institutions, besides size, is its status. As an academic corporation, the University can and must continue to invest money despite the health of the economy. Although there was a period after the 2008 recession when the University went through heavy budget cuts, they mainly fell on administrative functions. The surge in recent development projects has been supported not by increased tuition revenue, but often times from monstrous donations—the Booth School of Business, for instance,

Grey City | 9

received a $300 million gift in 2008 from David Booth (M.B.A. ’71), the largest donation ever given to a business school. The University’s dedication to development during a time of economic flux puts it in a unique position. As University spokesperson Steve Kloehn says, “We’re certainly the only institution on the South Side making the kind of investment that we’re making.�

And the city has noticed.

Budget issues have hit almost every local government across the nation since the financial downturn, and Chicago has been far from spared: Pension funds have gone underpaid for years, and the city’s credit rating was downgraded from AA+ to AA in 2010, largely because of Mayor Richard Daley’s habit of using the city’s reserve funds as operating cash. It’s not unusual to hear that Chicago’s predicted budget shortfall is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Although top officials in Emanuel’s administration rejected the idea that the MOU was motivated by economic factors, University administrators suggest that it was a logical step that the city proposed to create a stronger economic and commercial culture on the South Side. Never before has the city partnered so tightly with the University—an unusual fact considering the University’s closeness with former administrations (former Mayor Daley, who now holds a faculty position at the U of C’s Harris School of Public Policy, called the University “the greatest institution in Chicago� while he was in office).

But motivations aside, what’s not debatable is that the MOU was constructed with cooperation on economic development in mind. “The University’s growth presents an opportunity to partner with the City to catalyze the revitalization of communities surrounding the Hyde  Park campus by creating jobs and improving key services for Chicago’s residents,� it reads. “The idea generally was that it was taking forever for the university to get permits, and there was an opportunity to streamline things,� said Tom Alexander (A.B. ’00), a spokesperson for

10 | Volume 11

The aldermen are mentioned twelve times throughout the MOU, and are involved with almost every aspect of what will come out of the agreements—the University must meet with them at least quarterly, provide computer workstations for their offices to assist people in finding jobs, and they review the progress of the memorandum annually. Additionally, the MOU doesn’t change the way permits and zoning are handled, so every major # development ;WZZW]\ %# Y #'bV Ab still must Ac^^]`b ;Sb`O \SWUVP]`V]R meet the W[^`]dS[S\b appropriate U`O\ba alderman’s approval. “The MOU doesn’t have an effect on the public process >cPZWQ 7\T`Oab`cQbc`S of whether something does or doesn’t need a permit,� Kloehn

Emanuel who oversees city housing and economic development. “If we did it together it would be faster.�

Effectively a statement of support for the University’s development plans, the MOU outlines several ways that the city will boost the University’s investments on the South Side: In addition to a streamlined permit process, the city will create an annual development plan for

# Y

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neighborhoods around Hyde Park that compliments the University’s projects, establish an inter-

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agency task force to oversee coordinations with the University, appoint a liaison to the University, and support specific University projects like the redevelopment of Harper Court.

The U of C, in addition to holding its commitment to spend $1.7 billion over the next five years, will increase employment opportunities for the community ]dS` # gSO`a during construction projects, reach out to minorities and women for job openings at the University, and take on several new neighborhood improvement says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Alderman has a projects, like opening a new 60th say and is an important part of Street Metra station and providthat process.â&#x20AC;? ing grants to local businesses. <Se But from the start, the The key mediators between 2SdSZ]^[S\ba aldermen have been hesithe city and the University O\R 1O^WbOZ tant to jump on board. In over the next five years will be 7[^`]dS[S\ba the Chicago Tribuneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first the aldermen that oversee the article on the preliminary wards surrounding the University. stages of the MOU, they reportâ&#x20AC;&#x153;It was important from the mayorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective that the aldermen be at ed â&#x20AC;&#x153;there is likely some horse trading the table,â&#x20AC;? Malunda said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There were ahead, as affected aldermen, who were a series of meetings with the city and briefed on the master plan Friday, come the aldermen, the University and the al- forward with requests.â&#x20AC;? Those requests dermen, and we came together two or have since shaped the MOU, like itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pothree times before we all felt comfort- sition on job opportunities for minorities and women. able about the MOU.â&#x20AC;?

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The university has bought several well preserved, architecturally and historically significant residential properties in thriving areas.... People are terrified the university will demolish or alter these buildings, maybe replace them with highrises and institutional structures,â&#x20AC;? Hairston said.

The alderman scheduled a public meeting two weeks later that largely addressed the concerns surrounding the Planned Development: the University compromised â&#x20AC;&#x153;The MOU does not eliminate City & by including a Council approval. The University ;WZZW]\ " section in the still has to come through me. ;O\acSb] ;WZZW]\ PD43 amendI will hold their feet to the fire :WP`O`g :]UO\ /`ba ment acknowlabout this, especially trans1S\bS` edging the areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parency and communication,â&#x20AC;? historic character, while Hairsaid Hairston in an October 26 ston struck down the creation press release that condemned of a historical district, saying the MOU in the face of a small ;OX]` it would place unfair costs on and unrelated development C\WdS`aWbg 0cWZRW\Ua residents. But perhaps the most project. constructive aspect of the That conmeetingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one that needs flict to be addressed again began when if the University the University was amend # wants to avoid ing its Institutional Planned Devel;WZZW]\ gridlock with opment document (PD43), a zoning 3QYVO`Rb @SaSO`QV the communiclassification that covers the contiguous :OP tyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;was when campuses of many large Universities, inMOU was brought up cluding that of the U of C. Last year, the the University purchased several buildings several times during the discussion. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The recent Memo of Understanding on Woodlawn Avenue from the Meadville Lombard Theological School. As a between the city and the University of matter of course, they drafted a propos- Chicago has fueled questions and concerns about the potential impact of the al to include these buildings in PD43.

Although the changes to PD43 arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development plans on the explicitly part of the MOU, the events social, cultural and historic â&#x20AC;&#x153;characterâ&#x20AC;? surrounding it paint an unsettling pic- of Hyde Park and neighboring commuture for the roadblocks that might ap- nities,â&#x20AC;? Hairstonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s release reads.

Of course, matters become conflicting pear in the future.

Several Woodlawn Avenue residents when one considers that the MOU was a spoke out against the PD43 ammend- document drafted by the Mayorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office ment, fearing that the University was on the Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behalf, and includes pushing its boundaries too quickly and the aldermen as key figures throughwas preparing to tear down buildings. out development cooperations. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They Some called for the creation of a histori- were consulted before the meeting with cal district around the area, which would Mayor Emanuel, they were consulted at block University development. Alder- every step of the way,â&#x20AC;? Malunda said.

However, city officials are still confiman Hairston vocally backed these concerns in an October 26 press release dent that Hairston and others will conthat caught University and city officials tinue to support the colaboration with the University, and University adminoff guard.

However, some of the concerns from the aldermen have not faded. Fifth Ward alderman Leslie Hairston, whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s jurisdiction covers the majority of the University of Chicagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campus, made a daring move last month to speak out against a routine University development procedure, effectively stalling a relatively minor project.

Gridlock at midnight

istrators saw Hairstonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meeting as a point of growth. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The MOU is a partnership between the city and the university thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really good for both parties,â&#x20AC;? Alexander said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think the aldermen know that, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why they supported it throughout.â&#x20AC;?

Ivory tower, grey city Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an interesting piece of irony that the MOU, which was constructed with intentions to better the community through economic development and beautification, is receiving its first round of attack from the community itself. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not that surprising.

Although the MOU is an example of politics at its bestâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a broad alliance thought up by a handful of administrators and officials to tackle inefficient governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take into account the nature of a topic so broad as University development. With an institution as large as the U of C, every development project concerns a network of people that is larger than the officials who represent â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Cityâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Universityâ&#x20AC;?. Just as neighborhood residents needed to be consulted in regards to PD43, local businesses will inevitably have questions when the University and city-sponsored Harper Court development nears completion.

The only projects that are proven to be immune to this are public services, like the creation of a new 60th street Metra station or the expansion of the UCPD patrol area to cover charter schools, which was passed and went into action last month. University-centered projects need to take into account the considerations of all parties notwithstanding the streamlined power the MOU provides, or other roadblocks are bound to emergeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and they wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be the result of government red tape.

There are many ways to solve this, and perhaps Hairstonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unexpected PD43 meeting is one example. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the last several weeks weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve made a great step forward in working with the community and Alderman Hairston,â&#x20AC;?

Malunda said.â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m optimistic about it.â&#x20AC;?

Grey City | 11

Daiske Myagawa suggests a pitcher of Green Line at the Cove Lounge. alex gleckman | the chicago maroon

courtesy of the uofc archive

A history of Hyde Park nightlife

By Camille van Horne

GOODNIGHT AND GOODLUCK The year is 1949, and the midnight walk down 55th Street is filled with bright light spilling from bar after bar, all busy with the regular weekend hustle and bustle. Students looking for nighttime entertainment can choose from over 30 Hyde Park establishments, from Woodlawn Tap to the 1750 Club.

Fast forward sixty-two years and only a handful remain.

“There were 35 liquor licenses from Cottage Grove to Lake Park,” according to Woodlawn Tap owner Bill Callahan.

“The 1940s and ’50s was when Hyde Park was happening.”

The “Fight against Blight,” a nickname for the infamous urban renewal program initiated by the University in the late ’50s, would change Hyde Park’s vibrant cityscape forever.

“The University wanted to maintain property values and a friendly campus environment,” according to Urban Affairs and Planning specialist Derek Hyra (M.A. ’00, Ph. D. ’05).

The University’s plan of urban renewal is largely considered one of the first major gentrification projects in the nation. Residential buildings were favored over storefronts on 55th Street—Hyde Park’s main drag—for fear that they would attract unwanted sorts from neighboring areas. “The University was surrounded by low-income neighborhoods and there was a fear of attracting crime,” Hyra said.

With partiers ranging from thousands of servicemen fresh out of World War II to businessmen en route to Midway airport, the strip of bars along 55th

14 | Volume 11

Street was more than just a Hyde Park attraction—it was a Chicago staple.

In the Chicago Tribune’s obituary for Woodlawn Tap founder Jimmy Wilson, the strip is described as a place “where Nobel Prize-winners rubbed shoulders with workaday South Siders, where beat poets shared the mahogany with beat cops.”

Those bars that weathered urban renewal and its lasting influence on the neighborhood’s cityscape serve as witnesses to the rise and fall of Hyde Park nightlife.

Walk into Woodlawn Tap (commonly referred to simply as Jimmy’s) on a Thursday night and you’ll still see the glimmer of something like a vibrant night in Hyde Park. The scene is alive with students, scholars, and South Siders sharing pitchers and their thoughts on everything from Occupy Chicago to the pros and cons of ordering another grilled cheese. Push through the crowd at the front of the bar and go around a dark corner to see pinball machines and picnic tables packed with even more people. The bar glimmers with a selection of 10 beers on tap, but Budweiser is forbidden—the result of a feud against the brand led by Jimmy Wilson, who opened the tavern in 1948 and operated it until his death in 1999.

Jimmy’s has historically brought together a diverse clientele, many of whom would later become some of Hyde Park’s most notable residents.

Saul Bellow and Dylan Thomas are rumored to have raised their glasses there. The Compass Players, a com-

edy ensemble largely comprised of U of C dropouts, performed at Jimmy’s from ’55 to ’58, before a number of the members went on to form the improv group Second City.

The Cove Lounge, located on 55th and Everett, is on the farther end of the 55th Street drag. A ’30s-style cherrywood bar and nautical theme invite a host of characters ranging from your middleaged man in a red Adidas jumpsuit to worn-out University workers drinking the day’s long-awaited beer.

Kurt Vonnegut (A.M. ’71)was a regular back in the day when there was a piano and the place was called the 1750 Club.

Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck would have a few beers and then head to the Point nearby, where he would take off his wooden leg and jump into the lake.

“This place keeps me alive,” says 90year-old bartender Daiske Myagawa, who goes by Dyke.

Dyke is a fixture of Hyde Park nightlife, having worked at the Hideaway bar (now Kikuya Sushi) and the Falcon Inn before taking a turn as bartender for the Cove in 1997 on Monday and Wednesday nights.

In all his years, Dyke has seen, firsthand, the changes Hyde Park nightlife has undergone, along with its impact on students. For example, one of the biggest challenges in his career came from an influx of fake IDs from first-year students living in the Shoreland dormitory—something he calls a completely “modern phenomenon.” When Dyke lived and worked in Hyde Park in the

’50s and ’70s, the drinking age for beer and wine was under 19 in Illinois; fake IDs had never been a concern. But now that the Shoreland is closed, there have been fewer underage students attempting to enter the Cove. In some sense, things have returned to their old ways.

Surprisingly enough, the bar with the widest beer selection and biggest draw for students nowadays is the Pub, a private bar owned by the University and located in the basement of Ida Noyes.

Beginning as a collaborative effort 30 years ago between the University and the Medici restaurant, “the bar is a distinct part of U of C culture,” according to Jake Spicer (A.B. ’97), a business consultant for the Pub. The Pub prides itself on its exclusivity.

Only University employees, alumni, and students over 21 are eligible for membership. Nevertheless, students find it to be a reliable hangout. “The Pub is awesome because it is a profound place for seniors, especially on Mondays. It brings together a familiar, yet unfamiliar crowd,” fourth-year Omar Massoud said.

While the University does provide a little nighttime entertainment of its own, its involvement in urban renewal is indisputably the leading cause of the lack of options for the Hyde Park community

as a whole.

“Urban renewal eliminated the bars,” Callahan said. “Sheer luck led [Woodlawn Tap] to survive.”

Callahan believes that beneath urban renewal’s stated goal of creating a family-oriented Hyde Park was the subtext that “vibrancy was a bad thing.”

In Making the Second Ghetto, which focuses on the long-term consequences of urban renewal, author Arnold R. Hirsch makes an even bolder claim. He draws a deep connection between race and blight in the decision process made by former U of C president and chancellor Lawrence Kimpton. “Publicly, Chancellor Kimpton denied that community deterioration was a ‘racial problem.’

Privately, the goals he stressed for the renewal of Hyde Park were clearly racial in nature,” Hirsch writes. Urban renewal was a means to protect property value at the detriment of surrounding populations, in addition to creating barriers to entry for these populations.

However, according to manager of the Cove Todd Sleeper, who has lived in Hyde Park since he was a boy, the change was welcomed.

“There was a swing in the neighborhood and people wanted a more residential area,” he said.

University students play pool at the Pub on a Monday night. alex gleckman | the chicago maroon

Hyde Park’s wild nights are still present in the minds of alums and older residents. Long-time resident Roger Deschner (A.B. ’77) describes the neighborhood’s nightlife as recently having gone “from bad to worse.” In Deschner’s time, “there used to be a rooftop bar on Del Prado and on the Hyde Park Bank with great views of Chicago.”

The Beehive on 55th was a great place for jazz, and, when the Cove and Jimmy’s were closed, the House of Tiki on 53rd Street was always the last stop.

“At that point, we knew that we had had far too much to drink,” Deschner said.

Opened in 1962, right in the midst of urban renewal, the House of Tiki pays testament both to the ever-present need for bars in Hyde Park as well as to the struggles bars and lounges faced after Urban Renewal. The Tiki was decorated with beaded curtains and blowfish lights—fake “Polynesian” relics of the 1940s—and prided itself on its “Zombie,” a drink comprised of seven different shots, complete with an umbrella.

The Tiki was one of the few 4 a.m. bars of Hyde Park and Jimmy Wilson was rumored to head over to the Tiki for a Budweiser after hours. It was also featured in Gene Hackman’s The Package.

“The Tiki was fabulous; it was just so tacky,” Deschner said.

Although the Tiki survived urban renewal, it closed in 2000, when owners Ted and Bea Ciral sold their bar to make way for another business which never came to fruition.

Those days are all but memories now.

“I cannot imagine a fun place to dance in Hyde Park,” fourth-year Sarah Mendelsohn said. Massoud usually heads downtown when he is looking for “an actual bar.”

But with the recent influx of development by the University, many see a bright future for Hyde Park nightlife.

Massoud believes that the Universityled development of Harper Court may make a difference. “With Hyde Park businesses becoming more mainstream, it is only a matter of time before someone realizes there is a dearth of nightlife options in Hyde Park.”

Grey City | 15

What it takes to open a small business in Hyde Park

By Colin Bradley

THE WAY THINGS WORK You can’t take the Hyde Park out of a U of C student, but a U of C student will beg you to take her out of Hyde Park.

At least on the weekends. Or when outof-towners are visiting. Or for a date, some good Chinese food, shoe shopping, or just a good stroll down a populated street after 9:00 p.m.

Retail in Hyde Park is notoriously hit-or-miss. There are no less than four places where you can order pad-seeeu (eight if you include student-run cafes), but nowhere to grab a decent hot dog or a pair of socks. If it weren’t for campus dominating much of the area, it would be difficult to see Hyde Park as a bustling college neighborhood at all. Take a drive down any of the main streets, and you’ll see mostly residences and family restaurants, not bars and boutiques.

It wasn’t always like this, though. In the early part of the 20th century, Hyde Park was home to over 600 businesses covering a full spectrum of retail and commercial options. Today? Well, look around—there’s only a fraction of that number still flipping their sign from “Closed” to “Open” every morning.

The post-war decades saw the majority of the decline in Hyde Park’s commercial activity. A $400 million endeavor spearheaded by the University of Chicago known as Urban Renewal is widely recognized to be responsible for this phenomenon, which left Hyde

Park resembling something closer to a suburb rather an urban neighborhood in the middle of Chicago.

That’s not to say Hyde Park is a wasteland. In addition to the plentiful bookstores and coffee shops that serve as the perennial haunts for U of C students, there are a growing number of restaurants and specialty shops—most of which are small, independent businesses.

Yet few are satisfied with the way things stand now. The prevailing sentiment is that Hyde Park needs a new business boom. Many are saying it, and a handful are making it happen.

One such person is Steven Lucy (A.B. ’06), a Hyde Park native. After graduating with a double major in Mathematics and HIPS, Lucy decided he wanted to let his roots grow right here in Hyde Park. In 2008, Lucy and friend Andrew Cone (A.B. ’06) opened Open Produce, a specialty grocer and produce market on East 55th Street—a process he says is “no less intellectually engaging” than time spent in Eckhart Hall.

Can obtaining an Employer Identification Number (formerly known as a Federal Tax Identification Number), an Illinois Department of Revenue Account ID Number (once called the Illinois Business Tax Number), and figuring out which licenses your business will require possibly be more difficult than understanding the proof for the

fundamental theorem for finitely-generated abelian groups?

Maybe. Opening a business in Hyde Park requires working with no less than eight different city, state, and federal agencies. And when you’re learning on the fly—“trial by fire” as Lucy puts it—it can be a challenging experience for anyone.

But first you need an idea before you begin cutting through the red tape of endless bureaucratic nightmares. In a tight-knit neighborhood like Hyde Park, you really need to know your market.

The difference between a successful venture and a flop can come down to how well you can gauge the needs of such a diverse and continuously changing community.

Lucy has spent almost his entire life in Hyde Park, and so it was his intimate knowledge of the neighborhood that made him realize there was a need for a place to buy fresh fruits and vegetables east of the Metra tracks. Knowing the needs of his neighbors transformed what seemed like a niche market into a successful business venture.

But you don’t have to be a long-time Hyde Park resident to know what the neighborhood could use. A native of Thailand and graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology, Pattie Kidwell certainly did not have the insider knowledge of Lucy. She did however notice a salient fact about the demographics of

Open Produce’s road to the market

Form an idea and start researching

Found our storefront and signed a lease, applied for business license with the city

Start construction and hire first employees

Start discussion with health department, get plumbing permit and start installing necessary fixtures

MARCH 2008

JUNE 2008

JULY 2008

AUGUST 2008

16 | Volume 11

Hyde Park: There are clearly a lot of college students. And what do students like? Noodle shops. And so she decided to open the reliable Friday night dinner spot Noodles Etc., which was recently named by the Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce as the neighborhood’s Best Business of 2011. Apparently Kidwell guessed right.

Tim Zaleski had been running Istria Café successfully for 10 years before teaming up with Sam Darrigrand, owner of Shane’s Deli in Wheaton, IL in 2008 to open the first Zaleski and Horvath Market Café (known intimately to Hyde Parkers as Z&H) on East 47th Street. Both realized that separately their businesses were “two-legged stools,” but if combined, could fill what Zaleski noticed was a noticeable gap in the Kenwood/Hyde Park area. The need for good coffee and gourmet sandwiches has proven so large that the pair recently opened a second Z&H on East 57th Street.

While the original Noodles Etc. was launched in 1995, both Open Produce and the first Z&H opened for business in 2008—at the height of the financial crisis and ensuing nationwide squeeze on small business loans. Which brings us to the next step in opening a small, independent business in Hyde Park: financing the operation.

Between the collected experience of both Zaleski and Derrigrand, they realized that even during the best of times, “banks aren’t interested in loaning money to small businesses.” Fortunately, these formerly successful smallbusiness owners were in a position to

provide their own financial backing.

Others have to get more creative.

Lucy and Cone faced similar rejections from banks when applying for start-up loans. So they used the grassroots approach and were able to successfully raise the requisite money from friends and family.

But for two U of C alumni, not grounded in the practical know-how required for a task like this, knowing exactly the “requisite” amount of capital to open a business was another challenge. Lucy and Cone ended up $20,000 over budget before ever opening their doors to customers. And as Lucy explains it, the hole continues to grow during the first two to three years of operation. While Open Produce has finally reached the point where the original loans can be paid off, he doesn’t expect significant profits until year six.

But even after begging and haggling and finally scraping together the money to start your own small business, there is one more hoop to jump through. And this one is on fire.

Posted on the website for the City of Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection is a rather tame-looking document titled “3 Simple Steps to Obtain a Business License.” A closer look reveals that it actually specifies at least 10 not-so-simple steps, as well as providing additional instruction for obtaining more obscure licenses and inspections for particular subcategories of businesses. It doesn’t even mention the letter you must receive from your alderman acknowledging that a new business is opening in

his or her ward.

For someone like Lucy, who had absolutely no prior business experience, the process can be daunting. As an example, he points to a mop sink located in the middle of the storage room in Open Produce. He found out the hard way that, first, he needed a mop sink, and second, the sink had to be located so that it was not too close to an electrical panel and did not block any exits.

The result? A mop sink literally in the middle of the room.

And it took only a few conversations with city officials to kill his idea of erecting an awning over the sidewalk. To do so he would need to insure the awning, hire a licensed and insured contractor to put it up, and then pay an extra fee, on top of the insurance, to keep the awning over a public sidewalk.

In short, he says, it takes “a lot of paperwork and a lot of bureaucracy” to fulfill all your goals and ideas for a new business.

Zaleski agrees that “Chicago is that city…in the city of Chicago, there are no shortcuts.” But when opening the new location, Zaleski had an advantage that neither Lucy nor Kidwell ever had: being buddies with the University of Chicago. Although even the U of C cannot make the red tape disappear altogether, Zaleski admits that “when the University of Chicago is your landlord— that carries some weight.”

When University administrators noticed that students and faculty were flocking in droves to the Z&H on East 47th Street, they invited Zaleski and Darrigrand to open up shop in a

Pass our plumbing and health inspections and open for business!

Gross sales increase above their opening level of $600 per day

Hit original business plan goal of $1,000 average gross sales per day

Hit $2,000 average gross sales per day

SEPTEMBER 2008

APRIL 2009

OCTOBER 2009

OCTOBER 2009 Grey City | 17

University-owned space on East 57th Street and helped them through the process. (The same thing happened when the old grocer on East 55th Street and South Lake Park Avenue was closing—the University reached out to Treasure Island to fill the gap.)

The University even has a special department for Hyde Park real estate called Commercial Real Estate Operations (CREO). Formally, CREO’s primary goal was to “strategically manage [property] acquisitions and holdings in a way that adheres to the University’s long-term academic and research mission while supporting the needs of students, faculty, staff, and community.”

However, CREO and the University’s current role as landlord exists primarily for recruitment. According to Director of the University News Office Jeremy Manier, “to form a community of scholars…one of the things you absolutely need is a community that is vibrant and someplace where people want to live.” The University can’t be a premier academic and research institution if nobody wants to live anywhere near it.

As Z&H and Treasure Island prove, sometimes the University’s involvement in determining which businesses will come into the neighborhood is

quite transparent.

The University also has a hand in larger, more long-term development plans in the neighborhood, such as the redevelopment of Harper Court to increase retail options in the neighborhood and traffic to the area. Concerning this considerably more complicated decision-making process, Manier says “Our community will need to consider: What are going to be the necessary elements of a successful business corridor? What are the important components of a thriving community on the South Side?”

On the surface it seems to be the ideal coalescence of interests: The neighborhood is looking for an increase in commercial and retail activity, and the University is looking for a vibrant neighborhood where top-notch students and faculty will want to live.

So while small-business owners like Lucy, Kidwell, and Zaleski are doing their part to increase the economic viability of Hyde Park as a neighborhood, the University has put its considerable weight in the game as well.

But how will these small businesses fare in a largely University-driven economic boom?

It seems to be a win-win. Most people agree that, as Zaleski puts it, “a rising

Owner and founder Steven Lucy mans the register at Open Produce. camille van horne | the chicago maroon 18 | Volume 11

tide raises all ships…the more quality retail—food and otherwise—the better Hyde Park is going to be.” Lucy agrees.

He says, “There are plenty of opportunities for plenty of small businesses to thrive. It doesn’t have to be a zerosum game. The more small businesses there are, the more active and lively this street will be.”

And it certainly seems to be a compelling point: The more businesses that open up in Hyde Park, the more foot traffic there will be, ideally for all businesses to enjoy. More Hyde Park residents will stay in the neighborhood when going out for the night, and more Chicagoans will make the trek to the South Side as Hyde Park becomes more and more a retail and dining destination.

However, such needs often lead to a perceived tension between what the University and what the community want.

Some people think there is more than a little reason to be skeptical about this alignment of interests.

There is a worry over how small business will fit into this “long-term picture” that the University would like to paint on the lake shore. The thought is that while the University fosters in a new wave of commercial prosperity in Hyde Park, this prosperity will be driven by chains like Five Guys, Whole Foods, and Hyatt, while the “momand-pop shops,” like Open Produce, will be slowly strangled out.

But the University recognizes that there are many layers to economic development in a neighborhood like this.

And as Manier says, “Small businesses are an incredibly important aspect of [those layers].” Each type of business has its place. We will always have a need for niche and neighborhoodbased businesses, but “Treasure Island and Five Guys fit in there as well.”

For his part, Lucy stresses that “the University is definitely an aspect of the community—but it’s only a piece.” The question is how that piece and its adjacent slew of big businesses fit into the whole puzzle.

Q

Building the future with the University Architect

Steve Wiesenthal

&

There are few men on campus with as much influence and as little exposure as University Architect Steve Wiesenthal. He gives few public speeches. What recognition he does receive is usually found in press releases you never knew existed. However, odds are you’re reading this in a building he’s either renovated, preserved, or built from the ground up. As the creative mind behind the commissioning and conception of campus buildings, he is the primary man responsible for the aesthetic that defines the U of C at the moment. With the recent opening of the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, as well as the ongoing construction of the Logan Arts Center, the William Eckhardt Research Center, and Harper Court, you could say his vision will rank as one of the most important contributions to the University and its image.

Grey City sat down with Wiesenthal to discuss this vision and his impression of campus now and in the future.

Grey City: What does your job as University Architect entail?

Steve Wiesenthal: It’s my responsibility to not only meet the considerable specific programmatic objectives that support our University mission—making sure we have the best spaces for scholarly research and teaching—but also that we do it

A

By Sharan Shetty

in a way that elevates the quality of the campus environment.

One of the great joys of being an architect on a university campus as opposed to doing one-off building is that we’re always thinking about projects in the wider context. Everything should contribute to enhancing the greater whole. So my job description is technically to oversee planning, design, construction, and operations, but the actual vision for the position is for it to be done in a way that reinforces the great influence of the University.

GC: When you were first hired by the University in 2008, what was your impression of campus and its architecture?

SW: My first visit to campus was actually to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House. I had been called about the job opportunity here but, frankly, that was—no pun intended—not the immediate attraction. The main lure was this iconic residential work of this great architect. Then I came onto the main quad, which I had known about for its collegiate Gothic heritage. What just blew me away was the overall setting and potential that this campus has, a potential that I think is not yet fully realized.

I had read and loved Devil in the White City, and there’s this section on

Washington Park and the Midway Plaisance, so I went down to the Midway in November 2007, and it was just this tundra, this barrier, rather than a connective tissue. I didn’t even know there were buildings on the south side of it.

To find out there were, and that they were built by some of the most significant architects of the 20th century, that was really intriguing. So I learned this was a campus that’s been layered over time, it’s not just Neo-Gothic.

GC: You mention the wide scope of architecture on campus. With your new contributions, do you try to preserve this past tradition or break new ground? What’s your ideal vision of campus and the surrounding community?

SW: Well, my ideal vision is that exact layering of history. It’s important that we preserve and restore these incredible landmark buildings on campus. But I think we should also look at other buildings that have some historical significance and think about ways we can reuse them.

When conceptualizing new buildings, we think about how they relate to the old ones and how location, program, scale, and other variables impact the approach to each project. We want to take the conversation and discourse about campus architecture be-

Grey City | 19

yond style and more about the performative aspects of architecture. Does a building enhance its context while meeting its specific objective?

I would say that Mansueto Library, despite being strikingly modern in its form, is really quite contextual in how it sits on campus: deflecting to the main quads and pointing to the Henry Moore sculpture, creating a really transparent street presence along Ellis Avenue.

GC: Speaking of Ellis Avenue, one of your main objectives has been making it a larger part of campus activity.

Where would you say you stand with this objective?

SW: It’s still very much in progress.

Ellis Avenue, experientially, still feels like somewhat of a dividing line. We’re trying to look at all these dividing lines and turn them into connective tissue.

So future projects on Ellis aim to address what we’ve inherited, which is that the main quadrangles by design and intention turn their backs to the street, making it difficult to find an entrance. They were intentionally created that way, to have an innerfocused, cloistered quadrangle that would keep out distractions from the outside world.

We now want to let in some of those distractions. We want to be open and permeable—not just for the campus community itself but for visitors that come as well. A good example is the next building you’ll see across from Mansueto, the William Eckhardt Re-

search Center. It will be almost completely transparent, with visible entrances at street level and a café. It’ll be another big step forward in changing the experience of Ellis into a main street.

We’re still in the very early planning stages, but we’re also thinking about ideas for the intersection of 58th and Ellis, affectionately known now as the “surgery and brain quad.” For many this intersection is the front entrance to campus, but you would never know it. You arrive there and kind of scratch your head. That intersection should be a true meeting ground for more engaged activity, with the research building, as well as the bookstore, right there. If Ellis Avenue is the primary north-south street, 58th is the primary east-west road, so we’re looking to build off what we’ve done in the main quads and give it a more pedestrian feel, to extend that ambiance outside the quads.

GC: It’s easy to see the attention paid to increasing the accessibility of Ellis and the Midway. As a former B-J resident, I think the Midway Crossings project completed this past summer helped establish that area as a main hub.

SW: Certainly the Midway project, and its lights—or the “sabers,” as I hear students call them— were meant to enhance that feeling of entry. One of the biggest challenges for the University is that connection between north and south of the Midway, so the proj-

South Campus Residence Hall

ect addresses the experience of physically walking across the Midway, with the bright lights and sense of being welcomed onto campus.

Logan Arts Center is another project that is meant to establish a critical mass south of the Midway as the first south-of-the-Midway University activity center. People won’t just be coming from the south. There will be two-way traffic that stitches together both sides.

There’s this perceptual distance between the north and south. When you’re standing on the south side of campus you can see the towers of Rockefeller Chapel and Harper Memorial Library and the old hospital, but when you’re standing in the north you can’t see what’s on the south side. So I think the distance is stretched in your mind’s eye when you can’t see your destination. The glass tower of the Logan Arts Center is intended to help compress and connect that space in your perception.

GC: In the past few years, with the construction of the Logan Arts Center and the William Eckhardt Research Center, it seems like there’s been a wave of development on campus. When you began brainstorming these huge projects, did you try to make them share common bonds or did you aim for each building to be self-sufficient?

SW: We have four very simple principles that we apply to every new building as well as renovations. The

Midway Crossing Project* Joe & Rika Mansueto Library

Autumn 2009

20 | Volume 11

Summer 2010

Spring 2011

first is that the University of Chicago is about the exchange of ideas, so every project should enhance and reinforce that exchange. This applies both to the spaces within the buildings, or in the general design of the building, as well as with how it fits within its context and refers to what’s around it. All of that should engender discussion and interpretation. And certainly there should be a sense of being welcomed.

The second principle is about fostering stewardship. There’s a lot of time between the conception and occupancy of these buildings. For example, they started talking about Logan Arts Center ten years ago.

So you want to meet the building’s original goals, but you also want to think about how a building can last for a 100 years. You have to give it that flexibility to meet known and unknown needs.

The third relates to our environmental sustainability goals. We’re requiring that all buildings be, at minimum, LEED certified. It’s more than just a checklist for us; it’s about ensuring the health of people within the buildings, as well as its impact on the earth’s resources.

The Logan Arts Center is us getting our toe in the water of renewable energy [with its rooftop gardens].

The fourth principle that forms our vision is the one most open to debate and interpretation, which is to enhance the identity and character of the U of C campus. How you apply that is very dependent on the project and its location, but we try

our best to apply it to every idea.

for the next several decades.

GC: Much of the University’s new construction, particularly everything south of the Midway, is closer to communities that are unaffiliated with the University than it is to the rest of campus. What is your approach to engaging with these neighboring communities, especially those, like Woodlawn, that have a history of tension with the University?

SW: Our approach is based on the belief that we have shared goals with these neighborhoods.

Certainly we have conflicting goals, as well, but coming together and talking is absolutely essential. We began about two years ago to convene an evening discussion with a group of community members, urban planners, architects and preservationists to talk about what is important to campus as well as the broader community, and how can we align our goals better than how we’ve done in the past. We also have town halls and the aldermen to organize discussions.

I do want to correct an impression that your question exposes, which is that the University is running out of land. We are actually in a much different place than a lot of our peers, especially when you think of Harvard having to build across the river, or Columbia going north. If we were to build widely and densely, especially in the south and west, we see the ability to continue to grow

GC: Where exactly is most of this land?

SW: Mostly south of the Midway, where there are small-scale, freestanding buildings. West of Ellis Avenue we’re working with the medical center to look at long-term growth potential of land over by Cottage Grove and Maryland Avenue.

Along Woodlawn there’s also that unique, rather residential transition area. We had a community meeting that alderman Leslie Hairston hosted, where we reiterated our desire to maintain that residential transition area. Hyde Park and Woodlawn are really important areas for us to improve, so we certainly have shared goals that are helpful to talk about.

Main Quad Renovation

GC: Where do you see University development going from here?

SW: If we build wisely on land we own, we can continue to support our specific strategic initiatives: To move forward from the more inner-focused, exclusionary design of the original campus, to make it a public realm, and to fully link the north and south sides of the Midway. I refer to the current layout of the Midway as a “march of mid-century modern masterpieces” that have very little to do with each other and turn their back to the Woodlawn neighborhood. We need to have a stronger interface with that neighborhood.

Eckhardt Research Laboratory*

Reva & David Logan Arts Center*

Spring 2012

Summer 2012 * photos courtesy of the university of chicago

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