New UIC building softens Brutalist campus' edges
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The University of Illinois Chicago’s Computer Design, Research and Learning Center (CDRLC) (left) connected to the Walter Netsch-designed engineering building. Photo: Carrie Shepherd/Axios
University of Illinois Chicago's new Computer Design, Research and Learning Center (CDRLC) updates the school's famous Brutalist campus with a design better suited for modern learning.
Why it matters: Brutalism dominates UIC with its concrete, hulking, sharp-edged buildings, and CDRLC's architects designed the new building to pay homage to that history while creating a more inviting, inclusive, and brighter space.
The big picture: Chicago-based Booth Hansen and LMN Architects in Seattle designed the 135,000-square-foot, five-floor building with classrooms, research and robotics labs, faculty offices and communal learning spaces.
- CDRLC was built onto the exterior of UIC's engineering building, so the Brutalist style remains very visible.
Flashback: The late Chicago architect Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill is responsible for much of UIC's architecture, which he designed after Mayor Richard J. Daley built the campus on the Near West Side in the 1960s.
State of play: Brutalism lacks modern amenities that today's students and teachers expect — more daylight, open learning spaces, and brighter colors.
- CDRLC has softer, curved edges and an open staircase immediately off the front door. Each of the five floors is exposed through wood columns and chain netting.
What they're saying: "We wanted to design a set of spaces that were inclusive and inviting and filled with light and more materials, and also that reflected on the existing architecture in a way that celebrated it and breathed new life into it," LMN architect and former UIC student Mark Nicol told Axios during a tour of CDRLC.
- "I should say I think Walter Netsch was a fantastic architect. It's a historic campus but you know, a 50-foot high brick wall and 70-foot high concrete column, I think some people find a little bit imposing," Nicol added.
Between the lines: Brutalism is polarizing. Fans flock to Chicago to see prime examples like Marina City, River City and UIC, but others are turned off by its harshness, especially in a city known as the birthplace of the skyscraper.
- "Films such as 'A Clockwork Orange' turned Brutalist masterpieces into symbols of future dystopia," Nikil Saval wrote in the New York Times in 2016.
What's next: CDRLC is not just for computer science students and faculty, the architects noted. They see it as a space for students to linger and as a gateway from Little Italy.