If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Jeanne Gang, FAIA, founder and principal of Studio Gang Architects, introduces the design for a new residence hall and dining commons on the north end of the University of Chicago campus. The renowned Chicago architecture firm has created a design that is tailored to the unique College Houses system, encouraging communities of learning outside of the classrooms. This landmark facility continues the University's commitment to architecture that fosters dialogue and cultivates scholarly communities.

Comments

1. It's very extrovert extrovert extrovert extrovert. I wish architects finally grabbed the idea that community is much more than just creation of communal spaces.
2. 1st things 1st, drop the word "tower" from your vocabulary. Not once did Ms. Gang make any kind of statement regarding a "tower". Secondly, this is not about "towers". This is about function over form where form "does not" take a backseat to function.
   
   Compared to the now demolished residence hall, this new architecture wonder is a breath of fresh air.
   
   What Studio Gang has done is create a tiny oasis for the students that will allow them to interact more easily in an environment that is filled with all the necessary social amenities. The reading room at the top is designed to be just that, a reading room. By creating a reading room at a height that allows students to see beyond the trees at 360 degrees is a plus. The new residence hall is not about seeing all or part of Hyde Park, it's about human interaction in an academic setting. An academic setting located right there on the ground floor and thru-out & "within" this intimate landscape.
   
   Jeanne Gang as done it again by creating an Amphitheater/Commune that can be used for entertainment, performances, and sports.
3. I don't see how it matters that there are towers elsewhere in HP. The current tower is smaller then the one going to be build, and it is somewhat set back. Currently, here is a field of grass and a parking lot that will disappear. Indeed, the new tower on 55th will occupy both the spot of the old tower and the parking lot. It will be a much higher than that 8" wall that you mention. I still don't see how building a "gateway" and this giant tower are "open" and "airy". They are barriers.
4. There are already towers in Hyde Park and the building currently on the site is a tower, so what exactly are you talking about? It's an opening because the current site has an 8' brick wall around it. This is more open and airy.
5. I have a hard time seeing how this design "opens" the campus up to the community. She explicitly states in the unveiling ceremony that it is a gateway. The tall tower on 55th street is anything but an opening. It's a huge, gigantic middle finger to Hyde Park. How is a tall tower like that in that spot an opening? Good work on the facade though.