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TO ARCHITECTURE, EDUCATION, AND NATIONAL EDITORS:
Illinois Institute of Technology Names Two Architects With Chicago
Ties for Planned Innovation Institute
CHICAGO, March 7, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Chicago Mayor Rahm
Emanuel joined Illinois Tech President John L. Anderson today to
announce that John Ronan Architects and Shepley Bulfinch will design
the planned Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech
Entrepreneurship on the University's Main Campus in Bronzeville.
John Ronan Architects, a Chicago-based, internationally recognized
architecture and urban design firm, is the design architect.
Boston-based Shepley Bulfinch is the programming architect on the
project. Construction on the $40 million, 100,000-square-foot facility
could begin as early as Summer 2015 with a completion date anticipated
in 2017. The new facility will be located on Illinois Tech's Main
Campus, which was designed by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe; the specific
site has not been determined.
Ed Kaplan, an IIT alumnus and long-time member of the University's
Board of Trustees, along with his wife, Carol, made a gift of $10
million to establish the Institute.
"The new Kaplan Institute at IIT further establishes Chicago as the
place where the greatest 21st century innovations begin," said Mayor
Rahm Emanuel. "This center will help today's students become the
innovators of tomorrow-and provide businesses with a pipeline of new
products, processes and talented graduates to hire."
With a focus on innovative thinking and transitioning new ideas into
products and processes, the Kaplan Institute will house workshops,
media labs, classrooms, collaborative spaces, and offices for the
University's internationally-renowned Institute of Design, Idea Shop,
and Entrepreneurship and Leadership Academies.
"The establishment of the Kaplan Institute is a defining milestone in
IIT's history," Anderson says. "It will be transformational in terms
of how we teach our students-and all IIT undergraduates will spend
time here as part of their educational experience."
Kaplan, a Chicagoan who earned his bachelor's degree in Mechanical
Engineering from IIT in 1965, co-founded Zebra Technologies, a global
leader in bar code technology. "IIT will be transformed into a center
of technical innovation in Chicago, says Kaplan. "The Center will help
grow the tech-ecosystem here in Chicago and be a catalyst for
innovation." Kaplan's $10 million gift is a challenge grant and is in
addition to the $1 million he had previously given to support this
initiative.
John Ronan, founder of John Ronan Architects, will lead the design of
the new facility. Founded in 1999, John Ronan Architects rose to
national prominence in 2004 with the winning design for
the 500,000-square-foot Perth Amboy High School in New Jersey. The
firm has been the recipient of two AIA Institute National Honor
Awards-for the Gary Comer Youth Center and the Poetry Foundation, both
in Chicago-and was recently ranked #3 in the nation
by Architect Magazine. In 2010, Princeton Architectural Press
published a monograph entitled, Explorations: The Architecture of John
Ronan, andthe firm's work has been exhibited internationally,
including in Iterations: John Ronan's Poetry Foundation, an exhibition
at the Art Institute of Chicago that runs through March 2014.
"The aspirations for this project are nothing less than to transform
the way in which students are educated at IIT to meet the challenges
and opportunities of the future. I am honored to play a role in this
process and I look forward to the journey ahead," Ronan said.
Shepley Bulfinch, the award-winning programming architect for the
Institute, is a national leader in the programming and planning of
prototype collaboration spaces for some of the country's leading
academic institutions, including the Harvard Innovation Lab; Duke
University's Link Teaching and Learning Center; and collaborative
engineering and learning environments for Johns Hopkins University.
The firm has strong ties to Chicago that date back to 1892 when the
firm (then Shepley Rutan & Coolidge) designed the Art Institute of
Chicago as part of the World's Columbian Exposition.
"Shepley Bulfinch is honored to be partnering with IIT and John Ronan
to create this ground-breaking institute for innovation," said Carole
Wedge, Shepley Bulfinch President. "As a catalyst for the exploration
of the nature of design and innovation, its impact will be felt from
the IIT campus and the city of Chicago around the world."
About Illinois Institute of Technology Founded in 1890, Illinois
Institute of Technology is a Ph.D.-granting university, located in
Bronzeville on Chicago's South Side, with more than 7,800 students in
engineering, science, architecture, design, applied technology, human
sciences, business and law. Total enrollment in Fall 2013 was the
highest since 1968-and the Fall 2013 full-time undergraduate
enrollment was the largest it has been since 1981. Visit www.iit.edu.
SOURCE Illinois Institute of Technology
-0- 03/07/2014
/CONTACT: Jeannie Hartig, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, 312-576-3921, jhartig@iit.edu
/Web Site: http://www.iit.edu/
CO: Illinois Institute of Technology
ST: Illinois
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