Northwestern begins a new chapter in education, the social sciences and global studies this fall as the renovated building next to Deering Meadow (formerly the Jacobs Center) opens its doors.
At the corner of Sheridan Road and Foster Street — in the heart of the Evanston campus — the reimagined space was designed to foster collaboration at every turn, bringing together the School of Education and Social Policy, the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) and several departments within the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, including anthropology, linguistics, political science and sociology.
“From interdisciplinary institutes to distinguished departments, as well as SESP which is in its centennial year, this major facility will provide an exciting home for social science, education, policy research and global studies,” said President Mung Chiang. “This new chapter for Northwestern’s comprehensive excellence would not have been possible without the generous support from many, especially Steve and Tracy Cahillane. We look forward to welcoming many students and faculty to this intellectual hub.”
A project more than two years in the making, the renovation has transformed the former Jacobs Center, previous home of the Kellogg School of Management, and significantly enhanced the surrounding grounds as well.
“The renovation of the former Jacobs Center was part of a larger plan to revitalize the center corridor of our beautiful Evanston campus,” said Provost Erik Luijten. “With the recent renovation of the Deering Library and the redevelopment of the Cohen Lawn, our academic community now has a variety of new and updated spaces for learning and sharing ideas, for having fun and making memories. We have a vibrant, forward-thinking academic community, and we are creating an environment that matches that energy. Our buildings, a mix of classic and modern, reflect our evolution as a university and, over time, they combine to become essential aspects of our character.”
The first floor features a flexible multipurpose space, the Steve and Tracy Cahillane Lounge, designed to host events of up to 150 people or serve as a welcoming student gathering area. The lounge opens onto the Steve and Tracy Cahillane Terrace, which overlooks Deering Meadow and serves as one of several outdoor gathering spaces planned as part of the new landscape design surrounding the building.
Faculty and staff moves into the building will conclude by the end of fall quarter. As it gradually becomes fully operational, the building will eventually serve more than 1,000 faculty and students each day. It features numerous classrooms of varying sizes, including the Emily Heisley Stoeckel and Kevin Stoeckel Classroom, as well as meeting and seminar rooms, lab spaces, faculty offices, space for student services and dining areas such as The Eatery café. Each floor offers open seating areas where students and faculty can gather. There is additional space for student organizations, career fairs and other activities.
Others comment on the new space
“The building allows the School of Education and Social Policy to focus on two things that are integral to who we are: SESP is an interdisciplinary school, and we care deeply about our students. The disciplines and fields are now closer to others with shared expertise in the building. It is good for our faculty. It is great for our extraordinary students. We take our students’ health and happiness seriously, and it shows in how they're cared for — in a building flooded with natural light and a connection to the outdoors and a thoughtfully designed space that houses our vibrant, close-knit student affairs community. Our new location in the heart of campus is fitting for a school focused on student well-being and interdisciplinary connections.”
- Bryan Brayboy, dean of the School of Education and Social Policy
“The opening of this building is a pivotal and exciting moment in the history of the social sciences and global studies at Northwestern. This move allows us to bring together our departments of anthropology, linguistics, political science and sociology, as well as several interdisciplinary programs, multiplying the intentional and chance encounters across a range of academic fields and subfields that is at the heart of the Weinberg College’s interdisciplinary and international ethos. This will be enhanced by co-location with SESP, IPR and the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.”
- Adrian Randolph, dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
“A big part of our work at Buffett is putting people together to generate ideas about the world’s so-called ‘wicked’ or intractable problems. We do that in path-breaking research projects and innovative courses, and at 2001 Sheridan, we’ll have a ready-made constituency in the thousands of faculty colleagues and students who will be in the building every day. The timing is perfect as we’re launching a new program for distinguished practitioners in residence: diplomats, policymakers, people from the worlds of international business, the arts and humanitarian relief, for starters. They’ll have the University’s leading experts just a hallway or two away.”
- Deborah Cohen, director of the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and Richard W. Leopold Professor of History
“With its location in the center of campus, and state-of-the-art laboratory, classroom and collaborative spaces, 2001 Sheridan will transform the social sciences at Northwestern into a hub for high impact, interdisciplinary research and teaching.”
- Thom McDade, Carlos Montezuma Professor and IPR faculty fellow
“What makes IPR valuable isn’t any one topic. It’s the interdisciplinary exchange. That happens in our weekly colloquia, where people show up to get feedback on new ideas, and it happens through partnerships that grow into real policy-relevant research. Putting our researchers under one roof, in a space built for that kind of collaboration, is going to change what’s possible here. Not just within IPR, but across the other departments and institutes that will be in the building. I’m genuinely curious to see what happens when a psychologist, an economist and a sociologist are just down the hall from each other instead of across campus. That proximity is where the next chapter of social science at Northwestern gets written.”
- Andy Papachristos, director of IPR, director of the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science and John G. Searle Professor of Sociology
