Louis Sullivan Student Center

The great majority of the colleges and universities located in Chicago’s Loop do not have and cannot afford to support independent comprehensive student union facilities. This proposal contemplates the creation of the Louis Sullivan Student Union in the heart of the Loop in close proximity to these institutions. The inviting nature of the Carson Pirie Scott and Company building, and its historical presence along State Street, offers an ideal location for such a facility.

The Carson Pirie Scott and Company building is in fact physically the center of the Loop, and is an icon representing the heart of Chicago. The building is the center of gravity for Loop cross traffic including the CTA elevated train line, the bus routes, and the subway systems that encircle it. An abandoned CTA subway entrance on State Street will be reopened. Pedestrian entrances are on State, Madison, Monroe Streets and Wabash Avenue. Already a destination point for many in Chicago, the Carson Pirie Scott and Company building would become the beneficiary of thousands of additional daily patrons visiting the Louis Sullivan Student Union. A proposal has been tailored to suggest developing the entire underutilized lower level and part of the street level space into a 24-hour a day student center.

The target audience is the young professional between the ages of 18 and 35 who is enrolled in local undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs. The students we seek live in Chicago and travel daily into the Loop, or they may be students from out of state, or international students residing in housing around the city. The facilities will be superior to those offered at national campuses and presented in a manner meeting the expectations of guests in a five star hotel.