The Master Plan team proposes three building projects: a campus center, a media production center, and a performance hub.
To achieve the Columbia 2010 goals, the Master Plan team proposes three building projects: a campus center, a media production center, and a performance hub. Completed over the course of ten years, the renovated 618 South Michigan building and these three projects will add 503,000 net square feet, satisfying the College’s projected need for additional space to accommodate both growth and quality improvements.
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3 Major Development Concepts 618 South Michigan Campus Center Media Production Center Performance Hub
The three building projects highlighted in this Master Plan are specific solutions based on specific needs. As Columbia and the South Loop continue to change, the College should remain flexible to real estate opportunities that fall outside these building projects. To guide this development, the Master Plan recommends an overall real estate strategy that grew out of the brainstorming discussions and has been refined throughout the process.
| Overall Real Estate Strategy |
| consider selling properties South of Roosevelt |
| continually monitor portfolio to determine which buildings to maintain and which to replace |
| consider acquiring additional properties “on campus” for future expansion |
| demolish/rebuild most inefficient or unworkable space |
| utilize land Columbia College Chicago currently owns for expansion |
Planning Principle: |
Columbia College Chicago is committed to environmental sustainability for all future building projects. Not only are sustainable construction practices better for our planet, environmentally conscious buildings use fewer energy resources and are less expensive to maintain. Although construction costs may be higher, Columbia believes that the long-term benefits outweigh the initial expense.
The general sequence of Columbia’s development
manages growth by adding new space while renovating
and reprogramming existing space. As programs move
into the new facilities, vacated spaces in existing
buildings will be available for expansion of adjacent
functions or the consolidation of programs currently
dispersed in different places.
| Available Space (all figures in nsf) | |
| 33 E. Congress | 41,000 |
| 600 S. Michigan | 32,000 |
| 623 S. Wabash | 49,000 |
| 624 S. Wabash | 36,000 |
| 1104 S. Wabash | 17,000 |
TOTAL |
175,000 |
The 618 South Michigan building is
being acquired by Columbia College
Chicago. As the home of The Spertus
Institute for many years, existing
facilities in the building include offices,
classrooms, a library, and archives.
With Spertus Institute’s construction
of a new space (scheduled completion
early 2008), Columbia College
Chicago is acquiring the current
76,000 net square foot, 10 story
building adjacent to Columbia’s
library and significant facilities on the
600 South Michigan block.
The building will be renovated to fit
the College’s needs and a functional
program for the building is currently
being developed. Lower floors nearly
align with floors of the 624 South
Michigan building adjacent to the
south providing an opportunity for
horizontal expansion of the library. A
temporary student center or gallery
space is being considered at ground
level. The existing elevators were
designed with capacity for office
functions and limit potential high
capacity classroom use at upper levels.
The new space will address some of
Columbia’s most immediate needs and
will free space in other buildings as
functions are relocated giving strained
schools space to grow.
Located at Wabash and 8th streets, the Campus Center will bring
together student-centered functions on five floors accessed
directly from the street. Its central location and student-focused
program will make it the symbolic core of the campus, providing
a point of convergence for the campus community and an
interface between Columbia College Chicago and the public. A
newly-constructed building will provide higher quality studio
space, theater space and gallery space than has been achievable
in older renovated buildings. Since all students take classes in
the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS), most of the LAS
academic space and general classrooms will be moved to this
new building making it an academic hub as well as a crossroads
for students.
Have an iconic presence. A bold architectural gesture, reflecting the Columbia’s creative and innovative nature, would announce the College’s identity to the South Loop and could be the nucleus around which a distinct sense of place for the campus could be created. The Campus Center would be centrally located on campus, so that it is a natural intersection for the college community.
Have flexible spaces. New construction would provide space with fewer columns, making the building more adaptable to serve evolving needs. It would also have an integrated technological back bone and effective mechanical systems with flexible capabilities.
Be student-centered. It should provide places for students to collaborate on interdisciplinary projects, to collaborate with faculty, , to present work to other students and the community, places to eat and to study and to cross paths with students from other departments. The Campus Center will also help meet the needs of the growing student resident population as it increases space for the services most used by these students.
Improve learning environment quality. As Columbia’s student population continues to grow, new teaching space will be a constant need. New construction should provide as much capacity to accommodate growth requirements as allowed by zoning.
Support the production of a “body of work.” It should provide students with areas to work outside of the classroom on individual or group projects as well as multidisciplinary showcase spaces, performance venues, and storage facilities.
Columbia College Chicago’s Media Production Center (MPC) would enable the College’s School of Media Arts to offer production studios to support its film, video, television, and interactive media programs. A “media production center” will significantly improve teaching and learning at Columbia, and better prepare its students for the highly competitive film industry.
| The Media Production Center will: |
| offer state-of-the-art production studios to support film, video, television and interactive media programs |
| include digital studios – only one of a few in the Chicago area |
| position Columbia to respond to rapid change in the media industries |
| help build a diverse workforce |
| invigorate the local film industry |
As a college with a student-centered mission, Columbia must provide its students direct experience in state-ofthe- art production facilities, train them in technologies and processes of the visual media environment, and develop the capacity of its students and graduates to create and produce outstanding film and video works.
The MPC physical plant would feature approximately 36,000 square feet of sound stages, production and post-production spaces, editing studios, fabrication shops, a motion-capture studio, and animation labs. The MPC would also feature suitable sound stages for television production and digital-friendly facilities. This includes a green stage, a computer generated imaging environment for digital filmmaking and other digital-based work. Digital studios, one of the most in-demand resources by industry professionals, would be one of only a handful in the Chicago area.
The current location for production does not provide the large-scale spaces needed to help the school succeed. The current two-story facility is in a location that underutilizes valuable real estate. The current site can be leveraged to create significant opportunities remote from Columbia’s core campus. The media production facility should be accessible by public transit and have ample space for loading, unloading, and parking.
The Performance Hub would be a focal point for
performance disciplines on campus. A critical mass
of performance venues, classrooms, workshops and
rehearsal space could be collected near 11th Street
and Wabash, the current location of many facilities
for theater, film and music. This suggested location
is based on current facility organization and property
availability, but because the Production Hub is
planned for a later phase of Columbia’s development
there may be more suitable options open at that time.
Performance disciplines collaborate in the workworld to bring performance productions to reality, so students should learn from similar collaborations in the school learning environment.
The Performance Hub would create more opportunity for collaboration. The Performance Hub would be a center where the public will meet and connect with Columbia College’s productions. Performance disciplines are currently in the central campus, but have limited visibility. This project would be visible and have a strong presence on campus and in the South Loop.
Floor Layout 
Floor Layout