The Illinois Institute of Technology McCormick Tribune Campus Center in Chicago, Illinois
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz
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The Illinois Institute of Technology McCormick Tribune Campus Center in Chicago, Illinois
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz
Click here to license this image
Click here to purchase a poster or print of this image
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The Illinois Institute of Technology McCormick Tribune Campus Center in Chicago, Illinois
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz
Click here to license this image
Click here to purchase a poster or print of this image
The Illinois Institute of Technology McCormick Tribune Campus Center in Chicago, Illinois
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz
Click here to license this image
Click here to purchase a poster or print of this image
The Illinois Institute of Technology McCormick Tribune Campus Center in Chicago, Illinois
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz
Click here to license this image
Click here to purchase a poster or print of this image

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Eye of the Needle

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The Illinois Institute of Technology McCormick Tribune Campus Center
3201 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois, Illinois Institute of Technology 60616 United StatesPrint this page   •   Share this page   •   Map This

"You got your transit tube in my campus center!"

"No, you got your campus center in my transit tube!"

"It's two great structures that taste great together!"

Bizarre, yes. But bad? No. Not at all. The Illinois Institute of Technology McCormick Tribune Campus Center is clever. If there wasn't so much vacant land in the area, you might even call it a good way to save space. But regardless, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has put together is an eye-catching piece of architecture.

Essentially, there are two pieces -- a concrete and stainless steel tube surrounding the CTA Green Line elevated tracks, and a more contemporary building wedged beneath it. "Wedged" is a good word to use because on either end of the building, the structure is higher and it tapers to a low point beneath the train tracks, making it appear as if the train has crushed the building into the ground like an Air Jordan on a can of Tab. The tube above seems to pay homage to the silver streaks that used to race across the country's rail network to Chicago in the age before air travel became common.

All of this serves a practical purpose, though. It doesn't take a gearhead to recognize that the structure is a giant muffler. It surrounds the passing subway trains defuses and deadens the sound so that students can continue to work, play, and study in the building below. Or at least, that's the intent. After it was built analysis showed the noise was still above what would be ideal for an academic setting. And the building is also lacking in natural light.

But what we see here is more than a piece of architecture, it is an illustration of history. IIT was the place where architect Ludwig Mies van der Rhoe gave birth to the International Style. It is here, on the campus he designed, that his ideas were brought to life -- burly, masculine black boxes with stripes of exposed steel marching down the streets of commerce. There's a Mies or Mies-inspired black box in the financial district of every major city in the world now.

Koolhaas is a big fan of Mies. But Mies' ideas are old and tired in the 21st century. Koolhaas knows this, and has created a structure that is the antitheses of the ubiquitous black box. It is round. It is colorful. It is warm. It is enjoyable on its own. But the box is not forgotten. What do you think is crushed beneath the transit tube? Koolhaas has literally taken the shape of the past and laid it low beneath the modern aesthetic. It is a symbolic throwing down of the gauntlet. A son becoming a man, and defying his father for the first time. It is a tangible expression of the long overdue realization that the Mies days are over.

But that doesn't mean he's escapable. The building features a 25-foot-tall portrait of the late starchitect.

Chicago Spire Condo Information
Quick Facts
Statistics
  • Floor space: 110,000 square feet
Timeline
  • 1997: A competition is held for architects to come up with a design for this building.
  • February, 1998: The winning design is unveiled.
  • September 30, 2003: This building opens to the public more than three years late and millions over budget.
Notes
  • Architect: Rem Koolhaas
  • This was Rem Koolhaas' first building in the United States.
  • The building is decorated with pictograms designed by 2x4 which show the various activities of students.
  • The train tunnel above the building isn't really a tunnel at all. It has panels cut out of the roof, so it's really more like a U shape than a tube.
  • The transit tube is 530 feet long.
  • The transit tube cost $9,000,000.
  • The building is named for the McCormick Tribune Foundation, a charity with roots in the Chicago Tribune, that donated $13,000,000 towards the project.
Quotations

    "Someday, a PhD candidate can write a thesis and decipher exactly what went wrong."

    --Chicago Tribune, September 28, 2003.

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method='post' action='/Building.php?ID=1264#Rate'>Current rating:50% 60%  name='Rating' id='Rating' value='Praise' class='Plain'> name='Rating' id='Rating' value='Raze' class='Plain'>

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Your Thoughts

There are six comments.

  What a terrible building to have to walk through every day. Nothing about it makes sense, and it really has no purpose. There isn't really anything in there that required building a building just to house it. Essentially the building is a warm hallway just to get from one side of campus to the other. Hardly something to spend huge amounts of money on. And get this: Rem Koolhaas, crock that he is, requires that the school pay large fines if they alter his building in any way, or even put posters and things on certain walls. Way to care more about your reputation than your client.

Cody - Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 @ 7:42pm  

  Yea the building looks really cool, but as for functionality...its just ok...you could definately have gotten better use out of the space but its still a cool building...and to Mr. Kampert- a building and a sculpture should not be compared, if a building has the functionality of a sculpture then the building sucks

Ryan Yarzak - Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 @ 4:43pm  

   Great design. I like interior mostly. The sociable and at once dramatic space. Great artificial pop-art-like materials. I,ve felt like I am in XXI century really.

kamil - Friday, February 23rd, 2007 @ 1:02pm  

  This building may look striking, but day-to-day use of it is not pleasant!

Jonathan Carr - Sunday, January 21st, 2007 @ 5:37pm  

  Rem Koolhaas is showing Chicago (and the world)once again how great looks and fuctionality can be combined to a masterpiece in architechture.Folkert Postma, Chicago

Folkert Postma - Friday, November 24th, 2006 @ 9:52am  

  I just visited this building, and it looks great. The silver tube just amazes me to see how great Rem Koolhas really is with his work. I think it should be one of Chicago's top 10 best sculptures.

Brent Kampert - Sunday, November 5th, 2006 @ 6:09pm  

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