Not to be outdone by private institutions of higher learning, Chicago is investing big bucks in City College construction and improvements. The $479M in capital funding over the next five years will have, as its most visible achievement, the construction of a new Malcolm X College Campus directly opposite the current one. The mayor's press release tells of a 500,000 sf campus sited at Jackson and Damen, on a college-owned surface lot. The new campus will consist of two three-story academic buildings and a conjoined 1,500-car parking garage. As part of construction, a new Allied Health Academy will aim for stronger ties to the Illinois Medical District in hopes of grooming students for jobs in the burgeoning health care sector. The new Malcolm X will account for $251M of the overall five-year capital expenditures, with long-deferred maintenance eating up another $135M. To our knowledge, no renderings are available. Mayor Rahm Emanuel concluded, with heavy rhetoric, "The new Malcolm X College will be a beacon of academic and economic opportunity for the entire West Side and all of Chicago."
·Press Release [City of Chicago]
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