An informational outreach meeting has been announced for the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) at 1519 S Wells Street within The 78. Located just south of the South Loop and off of the recently completed Wells-Wentworth connector, DPI is set to be the first building within the proposed megadevelopment. The project is being spearheaded by the Illinois Capital Development Board and Related Midwest, with architecture firms OMA and Jacobs working on its design.
Site context map for DPI by OMA and Jacobs
Earlier this year the project was reviewed by the Plan Commission during a courtesy presentation from the developers. Now the Illinois Capital Development Board is leading a meeting on November 16th at the Hillside Village Hall. The roughly two-hour meeting will include a presentation and opportunity to network with the involved parties including the University of Illinois.
Informational meeting pamphlet for DPI
Informational meeting pamphlet for DPI
The eight-story rounded structure will rise 135-feet in height with 213,000 square-feet of space. Designed with collaboration in mind, this will be used by multiple universities including the University of Illinois, University of Chicago, IIT, UIC, and other global schools as an R&D center with over $200 million in investments expected annually.
Program diagram and elevations of DPI by OMA
Anchored by a multi-story atrium with cantilevered study spaces and staircases, the ground floor itself will hold a cafe lounge, three-multi purpose rooms open to the community, and an auditorium. The rest of the building will focus mostly on classrooms, office space, lab space, meeting rooms, and small focus rooms, with the top floor containing a large event space and outdoor terrace.
Rendering of DPI by OMA
The project’s original timeline called for work to commence early next year, however the meeting pamphlet mentions that bid packages will be released in the first quarter of 2024. Thus we can expect at least one more informational meeting to be held prior to then, with construction commencing in the second half of 2024 at the earliest. However there is currently no known timeline for the development.
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Part of me is happy that this entire Mega Project isn’t dead yet. I get that you’re literally starting from nothing with this land, and it’s a good first step to in-fill the area.
However, I have to mention that it’s disgraceful how slow Related have been with this development. I think the only possible scenario where I find it to be a “good” thing is the state of the economy. If/once everything blows over and interest rates go down, the cycle of more projects in cities will hopefull boom again. I’d love to know what the price tag for this entire mega project is at this point with cost of materials skyrocketing since covid. But I cannot get behind that argument entirely because of so many other factors.
This project is mostly reliant on TIF (as I’m aware) and now going through it’s second mayoral admin, and if Johnson doesn’t like the LaSalle redev project and wants that TIF for his budget gap. I wouldn’t be surprised if he considers the same for this — someone correct me if I’m wrong, I haven’t heard anything on where Johnson sits with this project. My point being that when you change admins with practically nothing happening, you’re bound to see a change of heart with mayors and if post-2026 is when this single project is slated to be done… that’s already 3/4ths of the way through Johnson’s admin with one single building being built. Which leads me to my next point.
This dev should not have been awarded to one single developer. If all developers of sorts were given the ability to call dibs, or buy slots of land in this big project, I doubt we’d see the pace it’s been going at since 2019.
I think outside of the One Central project (which at this rate, may never happen). I feel The 78 is what the South Loop needs to bring a spark of interest to more developers like what you’re seeing with the Fulton Market. Some may argue against this, but I’ll stand by my word and say the South Loop doesn’t have much to do compared to other parts of downtown and I feel like The 78 can give it that momentum and bring density to the area. I hope this project picks up pace a lot more before the end of the decade. Fingers crossed!
Glad to hear the road is already in place. Someone call Google and get their truck to drive down the street. LOL.
My god this thing should have been completed by now. Related is beyond glacial. I’m tired of waiting for the 78 thing to get going.
We’re tired of waiting for you to say something coherent. They’re not children in a sandbox. There are obstacles like financing, titles, remediation, reviews, more reviews, more financing, more reviews, lining up tenants, more financing. You have a strange way of seeing the world.
Infrastructure alone, the master plan is moving literal mountains on land that has been basically untouched for half a century.
I am still curious how they plan on moving the Metra tracks. Are they getting buried? The chunk of Clark is so confusing. Roosevelt is so high up, but it shows the new road at grade and connecting with the housing to the east. That would mean the tracks must go pretty far below; at least 15′ high minimum clearance is needed. Then, the tracks need to slope back up to make the height of the station. That is a pretty steep slope as far as rail grades go.
I would like to see more push, but also glad they are taking the time to get it right. Building a city from scratch is a tremendous undertaking, and most people get it wrong; built cheaply and left to decay in some cases.
Remediation has been done forever, the road has been done for a year, this DPI design has been revisited and revised 1000 times. Have you ever lived in another city? Hudson Yards had towers put up in this time frame. Domino Sugar redevelopment went up faster than this. West Bund in Shanghai went up 3x faster than this. All those projects needed new infrastructure and soil remediation and massive anchor tenants. Lincoln Yards has also already finished remediation in this time. They’re all being held up by funding and poor planning, open your eyes.
Your ignorance boggles the mind. Stop being a Related apologist and call out a slow project when it’s slow. If this had been split up into multiple developers with better bottom lines and tenant outreach it wouldn’t be going so slowly. You have an ignorant way of seeing the world. This project is big but it’s not THAT big when you look at global urban redevelopments. Girl bye.
Zap, Related was the lead developer on Hudson Yards. And it has been ongoing for decades with stops along the way as a possible Olympics site. You might have just boggled your own mind.
Not really. Coming from someone who lived there during the Olympics bid I can tell you it was always on the developers minds and it was talked about, but nobody got serious about it until mid 2010s. From then it went to approvals remediation to build out of a full phase pretty quickly. AND it was built on top of an active train yard. Those constraints don’t exist here but nice try
Curious, do you have the financial resources to lend to fund the project?
What an asinine question. Why would you compare an individual’s wealth to a development firm who largely builds with debt?
Ummm, why is this meeting in Hillside – 16 miles from project site?