> Our Future Home at The 78
A new headquarters and the beginning of a new innovation district
In 2024, we will become the first project to break ground in Chicago’s newest neighborhood, The 78. Our new home will begin to transform a long-vacant railroad yard into an innovation district, filling a 62-acre gap be- tween the city’s South Loop and Chinatown.
When completed in 2026, the DPI Innovation Hub will provide a beehive-like space for fully equipped engineering labs and computational labs for researchers as well as classrooms, conference rooms, offices for DPI staff and startups, a top-floor event space, and a ground-floor auditorium with up to 200 seats.
Construction of the 261,000-square-foot building, on an acre transferred to the University of Illinois by The 78 developer Related Midwest in March 2022, will be funded with $250 million from the state and university system. DPI is considering plans for further development including a second building, with wet labs for life-science research.
The design of the oval-shaped structure
will be led by Shohei Shigematsu and the New York office of OMA, an international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. Jacobs, the architect of record, is leading the project delivery from local offices in St. Louis and Chicago.
The building will be designed for sustainability and to be welcoming to the community.
Community Involvement, Community Benefits
Since the winning firm was chosen, we have hosted 50 listening sessions within the University of Illinois community to refine the interior space to best serve the needs of those who will be working in or visiting the hub. To get further input, we will expand our outreach next to communities near the site.
While we finalize our design and construction plans over the next months, the City of Chicago is already doing its part by constructing a half-mile extension of Wells Street to Wentworth Avenue, connecting the South Loop to Chinatown and providing ac- cess by car, bus, and bike to the front door of our riverside site. The street is expected to open in the next year.
Yet to come is a new Red Line CTA station, nearby at 15th Street, to provide mass transit access not only to our building but also to its overall development near The 78.
“DPI’s building will be the spark for a premier innovation district at The 78, setting the tone for an inclusive ecosystem with a wide variety of education, business, housing, recreation, and other opportunities.”
Images Copyright OMA and Lucian/bucharest.studio
Name that building
• The Neighborhood
• The Legacy Building
• Legacy Tower
• The Hive
• The Core
• The Hub
• The Dream Catcher
• The Starbase
• The Prism
