North Campus Construction Begins Next Phase April 21

EVANSTON, Ill.  --- The next phase of construction on the north part of Northwestern University’s Evanston campus will begin Monday, April 21 when construction starts on the global hub for the Kellogg School of Management and the new North Campus parking structure opens for parking.

The hub, which will also serve as the home of the department of economics in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, will accommodate the latest technology and foster new forms of learning. The projects are part of the planned development of the north campus area, which also will include new and improved facilities for athletics and recreation, a new home for School of Communication clinics and space for use by startup ventures.

The key first step in the complex construction logistics will be the opening of a portion of the new North Campus Parking Garage. Approximately 500 new inside parking spaces are expected to be available on April 21. That will enable construction fencing to go up and work to begin on the Kellogg Global Hub, which will be located in what is now a surface parking lot just northeast of the Allen Center.

“We wanted to ensure that there would be no net loss in parking, even temporarily, when construction begins on Kellogg,” said Ron Nayler, associate vice president for facilities management. “With the garage opening for parking, we can move forward on the Kellogg Global Hub.”

Cars will enter the new garage on the north side. Drivers should come to campus on Lincoln Street and follow it east to Campus Drive, just as they do now. Campus Drive goes south, and the entrance to the garage will be straight ahead at the point where Campus Drive curves west to go around the garage. 

For the rest of this academic year, parking in the garage will be handled on the same basis as it has been in the surface parking lots: A Northwestern faculty/staff permit or a visitor permit, which can be purchased at a kiosk north of the Frances Searle building, will be required to be displayed on all vehicles in the garage. Starting next fall, access will be controlled by gates and faculty/staff who have purchased parking permits will be able to use their Wildcards to access the garage.

Visitors to the Allen Center who take taxis should enter campus from Sheridan Road via Northwestern Place to be dropped off on the west side of the Allen Center. Those who drive should park in the new garage and walk east of Frances Searle, Cook and Pancoe Halls to the Allen Center.

Construction traffic for the Kellogg Global Hub will be via North Tech Drive, between the Technological Institute and Sargent Hall. The trucks will then be routed around the north side of Frances Searle to the east side of the surface parking lot near the field hockey playing field. This will keep the construction traffic more than 100 feet away from Cook Hall in order to minimize any impact on the vibration-sensitive instruments in that building. Other noise mitigation measures will be taken as necessary, similar to what has been done in the construction of the new garage.

When complete, the North Campus Parking Garage will have approximately 1,152 parking spaces and provide space for a new weight room and fitness studios, as well as office space and meeting rooms for fitness and recreation staff. The new building will abut the west side of the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion. 

The facility is part of the Lakefront Athletics and Recreation Complex. Other components of the complex include Ryan Fieldhouse, which will be a large indoor multipurpose facility, new team locker and meeting rooms, new sports performance and sports medicine spaces, renovations and additions to the Crown Sports Pavilion and Norris Aquatics Center, and enhancements to the field hockey and lacrosse/soccer fields.

Additional space on the first floor and on the second floor of the new parking structure will be used by Northwestern’s audiology clinic and speech/language/learning clinic, which serve children and adults with hearing and speech health care needs. The new space will provide improved and expanded space for clinical diagnosis and treatment, as well as faculty offices. Additional space on the first floor will be used by the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Space on the second floor, called “The Garage,” is planned to be used as an area for student-led entrepreneurial and innovation activities.  

Other construction also is planned for the north end of campus. Northwestern’s student housing plan calls for the construction of a new residence hall with approximately 400 beds on Lincoln Street where several old fraternity houses once stood.

“There undoubtedly will be some disruptions on the north end of campus as a result of all this construction,” Nayler said. “But in the end, we’re going to have state-of-the-art facilities for our academic programs, for athletics and recreation and for student housing. And we’ll actually end up with more parking. So we hope members of the campus community will be patient in regard to the temporary inconvenience necessary to create the facilities needed to meet our ambitious goals for the future.”