I'm looking forward to following the progress of this one. It's going to be a big change for that intersection.
Other Hyde Park/U of C projects I'm following in 2023:
U of C's completion of the new
Kimbark Parking Garage south of the Midway. It's scheduled to open this month, and I'm curious to see if the University will move on next to remove the parking lot behind the next door Keller Center. I've seen some early visualizations of the project that would extend the landscaped Campus South Walk (formerly the Mid-Block Connector) behind the Rubinstein Center into the Keller Center block.
The new
engineering and science building that's set to replace Accelerator. The design should be released this year, and we all know it'll be big. What I'm most interested in is how it will be integrated into the surrounding campus environment. In particular, I'm hoping the designers don't miss the chance to use the building to frame the iconic Nuclear Energy statue just to the east, which Accelerator blocks from the view pedestrians in the North Sciences Quad. A generous entrance way from Ellis Ave. into the Quad would fix that.
The
Metra 59th-60th Streets Metra Station. The 60th Street station has been boarded up for decades. With the Obama Center under construction just a block away--and set to open in 2025--
Metra will be rehabilitating the elevated tracks and classical underpass. Construction will hopefully start by the end of the year. This will be an unprecedented opportunity for the University to activate a traditionally sleepy part of the south campus. Hopefully, U of C planners are thinking about how to coax Obama Center visitors to turn west onto campus before they get back on the Metra. One suggestion: Put a student bookstore or other amenity in the University Press Building on 60th right next to the station.
Looking forward to finally seeing the opening of the
Arts Lawn between Garfield and 55th just west of Washington Park. The University's foothold on the soon-to-be-Campus West is continuing to grow.
I'm also following the University's ongoing pedestrianization improvements. Plans are underway to extend the brilliant pedestrian path along 58th Street west from the Bookstore to Drexel Ave. A landscaped plaza is planned for the old emergency room entrance and parking lot across from Kovler Hall. Although I doubt anything big will be on tap in 2023 in Campus South, I've got my eye on the block between Ingleside and Ellis that houses the Crown Family School of Social Work (formerly SSA). The School's Mies-designed building is a crown jewel on campus, but it's typically overlooked because, I think, the design environment of the block it's on is terrible. Replacing the parking lot on the block with landscaped pedestrian paths would be a good start.