Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects’ highly anticipated multidisciplinary arts center has opened at the University of Chicago in Illinois. Serving as a landmark on the south end of campus, the 184,000 square foot Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts is the new home to UChicago’s academic and extracurricular programs in cinema and media studies, creative writing, music, theater and performance studies, and the visual arts.
Inspired by the “flat prairies of the Midwest and the great towers of Chicago”, the new arts hub is comprised of a light-filled glass and stone tower and a three-story “podium” with a saw-tooth roof. The 170-foot tower houses a performance penthouse, screening room, rooftop deck, classrooms, rehearsal rooms, and performance labs, while the podium features studio space, music practice rooms, workshops, a café, a digital media center, production and editing labs, two theaters, and a 474-seat performance hall.
The University is pursuing LEED Silver Certification for the Logan Center, as the design features regionally sourced materials, a “green roof,” and solar panels.
More images and the architects’ description after the break…
Tod Williams and Billie Tsien: “The idea of the long, low, skylit building of studios and theaters, and the tower of the arts came from imagining the flat prairies of the Midwest and the great towers of Chicago. The quiet low “plains” building will provide three floors of beautifully lit studios, a gallery, music practice rooms and theaters that are spatial surprises. The presence of the tower on the south side of the Midway announces a new home for the creative life of students and faculty and a public venue for residents of the city.”
“We have put cinema, dance, performance, ensemble spaces of music, and classrooms on different floors and connected these programs with generous elevators and dramatic stairways. Details such as custom made tiles and felt paneled walls attest to the importance of the creative act. Moving from floor to floor, students, faculty, and residents of Chicago will discover communal places to gather and secret places to be alone.”
“The Logan Center is made to be explored and discovered over time. In doing so this building will be for all who use the Logan Center a place where arts overlap and friendships are formed and the exhilarating and the unimagined happen.”
Architects: Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects (New York) Associate Architect: Holabird & Root (Chicago) Location: Chicago, Illinois Client: The University of Chicago Site Area: 150,000 sqft Building Area: 184,000 sqft Building Footprint: 50,000 sqft Height: 170 ft (11-story)
Acoustical, A/V Design: Kirkegaard Associates MEP Engineer: Ambrosino, DePinto, and Schmeider Structural Engineers: Severud Associates Lighting Design: Renfro Design Group Landscape Architect: Hargreaves Associates Civil Engineer: David Mason & Associates Theater Consultant: Schuler Shook Theater Planners Film Projection Consultant: Full Aperture Systems Construction Manager: Turner Construction LEED Consultant: Steven Winter Associates Façade Consultant: Axis Group Limited Elevator Consultant: Van Deusen & Associates
In 2007, David and Reva Logan, and their children and grandchildren, gave $35 million to the University in support of the new arts center.
