In The Loop

The American way, frequently, is to raze old property to make room for new construction—especially when the new building will serve a much different purpose. Happily this trend is beginning to reverse itself in some urban neighborhoods, notably in Chicago's South Loop. Why did DePaul University choose to convert the 650,000-sq. ft. Goldblatt Department Store into the DePaul Center? For starters, it would provide the university with an identifiable and enviable landmark for its downtown campus. But there were other reasons as well.

"The three most important ingredients of real estate are location, location, location," says Ken McHugh, executive vice president emeritus at DePaul University. Goldblatt sat the width of an alley away from the three buildings that comprise DePaul's downtown campus. Also, adds McHugh, "The university has always been extremely sensitive to the existence of historical buildings and has become apt at renovating them."

The DePaul Center exemplifies a proactive approach to urban planning and design—a specialty of Daniel P. Coffey & Associates, a Chicago architectural firm known for its adaptive reuse prowess. The City of Chicago was preparing to sell the abandoned department store to the federal government for demolition to make way for a new office building. Instead, at Coffey's suggestion, the city sold the store to DePaul. DePaul then sold rehabilitated space back to the city for short-term use and will eventually sell it back to the university as its space needs increase. This arrangement has allowed the university a financially responsible mix of office, retail, and academic uses. And it also addressed the DePaul board's concern that perhaps the building was too large to suit the university's needs. "It is huge," observes McHugh. "It was almost a case of the little fish trying to swallow the big fish."

The rehabilitation included demolition of the north façade, an adjacent two-story building, and all interior systems; the creation of a new entry courtyard with a compatible, but distinctive new north facade; new elevator shafts and several atriums cut into the existing structure; a block-long mahogany storefront promenade connecting building entries; redesign of the roofscape to include skylights and a terrace; and the restoration of south and west façades using "Chicago style" windows. Maintaining Goldblatt's historical character was a key consideration.

According to Daniel P. Coffey, founding principal of Daniel P. Coffey & Associates, the fact that the interior columns were on a roughly 20-ft. grid was fine for creating faculty offices, but somewhat small for some of the classrooms. So some columns were removed to make wider spaces. "Another issue was that the university had historically been vertical in adjacent buildings," says Coffey. "One of the biggest challenges was