UIC breaks ground on new engineering building at Morgan & Taylor

On Friday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel joined officials from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) to break ground on the school’s first new building on the east side of its near-downtown campus since 1991. Dubbed the Engineering Innovation Building, the 50,000-square-foot structure replaces a portion of the large parking lot along Taylor Street between the existing Science and Engineering South Building.

Designed in-house by UIC and expected to open in 2019, the structure will consolidate the school’s chemical, mechanical and industrial, and civil and materials engineering departments. It will house instructional space, faculty offices, and research labs—including the UIC’s first “high-bay” labs that will allow the testing of large-scale structural components.

With enrollment in the engineering field nearly doubling at UIC over the last decade, the Engineering Innovation Building isn’t the only project in the works to accommodate the growth. According to the school, a second, larger 150,000-square-foot UIC engineering building known as the Computing, Design, Research and Learning Center is currently on the drawing board.

Also expected to break ground this winter is the university’s new academic and student dormitory complex. Slated for a parking lot near the northeast corner of Morgan and Harrison streets, the glassy 10-story project will have room for 550 beds and as well as classroom and study space. The $100 million facility hopes to open in mid 2019.

UIC

• UIC engineering college to break ground on new building [UIC]
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• New residence hall and academic center landing on UIC campus [Curbed Chicago]