Architecture offices OMA, led by Partner Shohei Shigematsu, and Jacobs have unveiled the design for the new headquarters for the Discovery Partners Institute, part of the University of Illinois System. The building is planned to anchor an innovation district at “The 78”, along the Chicago River. The eight-story building, located on a one-acre site southwest of the Loop, will provide more than 200,000 square feet of office, classroom, lab, and event space for DPI and its university and industry partners.
DPI cultivates opportunities for research, learning, and innovation in diverse communities, requiring an architecture that adapts to the continued growth of its programs. We wanted to provide a building that fosters interdisciplinary interaction and experimentation. Programs are organized to maximize efficiency and the potential to converge, and variegated layouts are configured around a central zone of collisions. A soft, transparent form and public ground floor offer an open invitation for the community to the building and its network. - Shohei Shigematsu, OMA Partner
The building is designed in a multi-directional manner, impartial to any specific direction, in order to create strong connections with all surrounding neighborhoods, engage communities from all sides, and open up toward the Chicago River. The entrance located at 15th Street and Wells-Wentworth will be marked by a sculpture by Richard Hunt. The ground floor is conceived as a shared space for the public, complete with a café, auditorium, exhibition and multifunctional spaces.
The main floors are divided between computational laboratories, classrooms, experimental laboratories, and offices. The center of the building is dedicated to a generous atrium that creates visual and functional connections between all spaces. The design team understood this as an opportunity to create spaces where scientists, students, professors, entrepreneurs, and industry professionals can collaborate and build things together. The top floor contains an event space surrounded by a terrace offering views of the city and surrounding district.
The project is expected to break ground in 2024, becoming the first building to begin construction in The 78 Innovation District. The DPI design team is Jacobs and OMA New York, led by Partner Shohei Shigematsu and Associates Christy Cheng and Jake Forster. Recently OMA, in collaboration with Jason Long, have revealed plans to transform a former warehouse in Detroit in a Mixed-use Arts and Community Venue. They have also unveiled the design of a new residential Tower in Miami Beach and a Music Venue in Houston.
