Updated details have been revealed for the new DePaul University Sports Facility at 2300 N Sheffield Avenue in Lincoln Park. Sitting just north of the intersection with W Belden Avenue, the new building will replace a handful of older residential structures. The project is being led by the university itself with Antunovich Associates and HNTB.
Site map, red (new facility) – orange (renovations) via Google Maps
The new facility came under fire from the local community due to the residential units from the 1890s being demolished, in exchange for a building to serve roughly 215 students from the university’s 14,000 student body. With the university also stating the nearby empty lot on Fullerton is earmarked for a future mixed-use academic building, though no concrete plans are in the works.
Rendering comparison of new facility by Antunovich Associates and HNTB
Rising three stories tall, the first changes came to the facade which had its brick re-worked to match more of the existing surroundings. Its overall footprint was also reduced to increase sidewalk sizes for public seating and landscaping. They also announced the facilities could be used by the community on a case-by-case basis according to Block Club.
Rendering of new facility by Antunovich Associates and HNTB
The building will bring new dedicated locker rooms, team dining space, nutrition bar, medicine treatment space, offices, hydrotherapy room, weight room, and meeting rooms. Above will be two full-sized basketball courts with floor-to-ceiling windows, these will be open 24/7 for student athletes as well.
Updated rendering of new facility by Antunovich Associates and HNTB
Additional details are expected in an upcoming community meeting on April 29th. The new facility and the modernization of the Sullivan Athletic Center and McGrath-Phillips Arena at 2323 N Sheffield Avenue will come with a cost of roughly $60 million. Work on the modernization is expected to begin later this year and the new structure in 2025 and potentially be completed by the end of 2026.
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Not a fair exchange. Demolishing gorgeous 1890s housing for a gym that provides no housing. And for a team that consistently is last place in its league. Why can’t they build on the nearby empty lot mentioned instead?
it’s obvious that this site will only post comments that won’t offend developers, even if the comments are true and accurate, and contain nothing offensive. i’m done with YIMBY Chicago.
Hi Tom, we approved your previous comment. We have no relationship with the developers so we only look for things that may be offensive or untrue. But we also are every day people so sometimes it take a while! thanks for bearing with us.
-Ian
They replace a multiple-use group of buildings for a monoculture-monolith. Stupid, backwards step. Not a smart university, I guess.
I agree with post above. I’m usually a YIMBY, but this IS in my backyard and is NOT
an improvement to the neighborhood. The rowhouses to be demolished are first-rate
design from the 19th C. The sports facility is third-rate 21st C design (even with the supposed “improvements”). This area is already losing a lot of vintage post Chicago fire architecture to “McMansions”. I would have thought that DePaul would be more educated than that. Guess not.
Between this and the scheme that led to Wintrust Arena, DePaul is the only Chicago sports program I find myself rooting against.
Tearing down housing close to transit in a neighborhood that already costs an arm and a leg just to build a gym is staggeringly off the mark. Shame on DePaul.
DePaul is out of their minds with this one. That parking lot 1 block north has been there for DECADES right across from the Fullerton stop.
I sincerely hope there is more aggressive pushback at this move by DePaul!
How have they not developed that sad surface parking lot at Full/Sheff into high-rise student housing? Could’ve included a gym among many other things there.