Our client
This private college founded in 1890 specializes in providing its students with accredited disciplines in arts and media, and Chicago is the perfect city for their students to stretch their creative abilities. The college incorporates as many Chicago events and connections as possible into their campus life, such as their partnership with Barnes and Noble College to manage their campus bookstore and the regular public tours their Wabash Arts Corridor leads to help fund public art in the city.
Project highlights
Their challenge
As a National Historic Landmark, the 1892 Ludington Building was the perfect addition to Columbia College Chicago’s expanding campus. Our client has 22 buildings in Chicago’s South Loop, and with their rapidly growing student body, they have been looking to expand and modernize their campus. Our client is committed to preserving the unique architectural elements of historic South Loop buildings. As a result, the design for this new addition needed to include updated building systems and careful but significant exterior building facade restoration work.
Our solution
Salas O’Brien met the challenge and provided full engineering services for a number of projects at this eight-story, 175,000-square-foot building. Our design’s system updates included replacement of the a central heating plant, replacement of existing gas-fired steam boilers with new high efficiency hot water boilers, replacement of the existing one pipe steam distribution system with a new two-pipe hydronic system, and replacement of the first and second floor HVAC systems. Other renovation features included the addition of an exterior storefront, entry replacement, repainting of the exterior façade, renovation of the first floor Conaway Center and Mezzanine, and miscellaneous classroom upgrades on the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors.
The results
Our team’s design work successfully met our client’s goals for this historic addition to their campus. This completed building with its restored facade now expands Columbia College Chicago’s South Loop campus and accommodates more academic opportunities for the growing student population.
