Daley College breaks ground on JGMA-designed engineering and manufacturing center

Image courtesy of JGMA

Yesterday afternoon, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel joined officials from Richard J. Daley College to break ground on the South Side school’s new Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing Center. Designed to visually unify the Daley campus, the $45 million project will reclad the existing building at 7500 S. Pulaski Road as well as construct a new 57,000-square foot addition extending south and over 76th Street.

Drawing on the designed language of the manufacturing industry, Chicago-based design architect JGMA penned the new student center with a conveyer belt-like layout with splashes of the same “caution yellow” typically seen in factories. The material choice of metal panels, glass, and exposed steel further reinforces the project’s industrial look and will help establish a framework for a wider master plan for Daley’s future expansions. JGMA is collaborating with CannonDesign who serves as the project’s educational planning architect.

In addition to providing a novel way to cross 76th Street, the Daley’s new Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing Center will contain new labs, administrative offices, and communal areas for students including exterior terraces and landscaped open space. The project’s interiors will be laid out in such a way to “intentionally collide” with seating areas and other shared spaces to encourage incidental interactions and collaboration.

According to the City College of Chicago, the upcoming facility will play a vital role in preparing Chicago students for the “more than 20,000 jobs coming to the region in the engineering and advanced manufacturing fields over the next decade.” It is targeting LEED Gold certification and is expected to welcome students by January 2019.

Image courtesy of JGMA

Image courtesy of JGMA

Image courtesy of JGMA

City Colleges of Chicago

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