Incorporating Innovations

The 415,000-sq.-ft. facility was designed in response to the latest innovations in teaching methods and student collaboration.

The Hyde Park Center will accommodate 1,100 full-time students in the master of business administration program, 110 doctoral candidates, 200 staff members and 167 faculty members. Since the faculty is interdisciplinary, the decision was made to mix faculty offices so finance, accounting and marketing professors could socialize.

The manner that business school students and faculty interact has changed in recent decades, making their previous buildings the GSB occupied not suitable for today's learning. The new building will facilitate collaboration because it contains ample space for group meetings, clubs and quiet study.

Because of the intensity of the GSB's programs, students are anticipated to occupy the building for eight to 10 hours each day. Amenities have been provided to support these activities, including a student lounge, a critical space for students to decompress and connect informally. The facility also contains a room with 1,226 lockers and dining room.

An Intricate Design

The Hyde Park Center is designed to complement architecturally significant buildings nearby: Frank Lloyd Wright's Frederick C. Robie House and the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.

The Hyde Park Center has a winter garden that is six stories high and enclosed by four funnels of glass, each supported by steel columns that rise 40 ft. before fanning out to form funnels.

The columns form Gothic arches that reflect a key element in the design of the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel and also the Ida Noyes buildings.

The winter garden fabrication required specialized equipment and material from across the United States and Europe.

The columns were fabricated in Poland and rolled in France, and the components were completed in Germany. The glass was fabricated in Italy.

The sidewall members were fabricated in Germany, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The Hyde Park Center also complements the ground-hugging style of the Robie House by including rooftop planters, horizontal limestone on the facade and cantilevered floors. A 42-ft.-long cantilever area alone supports and Dean's office.

A Difficult Site

The site on the southeast corner of 58th and Woodlawn avenues had the typically high water table of the Hyde Park neighborhood.

Because of the building's lowest portions are 35 ft. below grade, an earth retention system was required. A slurry was selected because of its ability to provide a water cutoff during excavation and to eliminate concerns that vibrations caused by installing a sheeting system would disturb the community and damage adjacent properties.

Monitoring and management of vibration were important, in addition to the efficient and safe management of construction traffic and logistics.

Concrete and masonry utility tunnels surround three building sides, making access difficult. Construction traffic was required to enter and exit the site from one direction on one street.

The project site is in a dense residential neighborhood. Complicating matters, the Robie House was undergoing renovation when the Hyde Park Center project started.

The University of Chicago Laboratory School for students in kindergarten through eighth grade in also nearby.

Construction traffic was prohibited from Kimbark Avenue due to student safety concerns. Work was also occurred between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. to add a measure of safety.

The completion date was essential to allow classes to start on Sept. 23, but multiple extended permit reviews by the city caused a total delay of seven months.

A program was implemented to recover the lost time, and the project was completed on the originally scheduled completion date.

The jury said, "This is a great architectural asset, and the project was complex architecturally. They are just across the street from the Robie House, and there are echoes of that in the project.

"The winter garden is beautiful, and getting the steel members erected was a huge challenge. The lab school is across the street, and traffic was an issue."