CHICAGO — Roosevelt University has completed construction on the $123 million Wabash Building, a 32-story tower containing laboratories, classrooms, student life facilities and residential housing for the college. The building, which is located at 425 S. Wabash Ave. in Chicago, will open this Saturday, May 5.
“The Wabash Building is special because it is a vertical campus that combines all in one structure 633 student residences, classrooms and laboratories, and student life facilities like a recreation center, meeting rooms, cafeteria and bookstore,” says Tom Karow, assistant vice president of public relations for Roosevelt University. “It is the second tallest university building in the country and the sixth tallest in the world.”
The first floor of the building contains the offices of administration, financial aid and advising, as well as the bookstore. On the second floor is a 300-seat dining center, and the following four floors include offices and meeting rooms for student organizations and a fitness center.
The tower includes seven conventional classrooms, three tiered classrooms and three auditorium-style classrooms, which increases Roosevelt’s classroom capacity in Chicago by 40 percent. Additionally, three floors include laboratories for physics, biology and chemistry studies. Floors 10 through 12 include the Heller College of Business, as well as a trading floor, an electronic stock market ticker and special rooms for Roosevelt’s Marshall Bennett School of Real Estate.
The remainder of the building is dedicated to student housing and contains 633 beds. Each floor includes a common area. Additionally, there are 20 washing machines and 22 dryers in the building.
Global architectural firm VOA Associates designed the building with several green features, such as a bike storage facility for 130 bikes, native plants on more than 51 percent of the roof space, construction materials that were 20 percent recycled and energy efficient heating and air conditioning equipment. It is anticipated to receive LEED Silver or Gold certification.
Construction started in spring 2010 and the facility will be ready for fall classes and student housing in August.
Roosevelt University is an independent, non-profit university with two campuses: one located in downtown Chicago and the other in suburban Schaumburg, Illinois.
“We couldn’t put up just any building next to the Auditorium Building, our national historic landmark home built in 1889,” Karow says. “When the Auditorium Building was constructed, it was a statement to the world that the city of Chicago had arrived. The Wabash Building is a statement to Chicago that Roosevelt has arrived.”
— Savannah Duncan