• Photography: Brad Feinknopf

    Photography: Brad Feinknopf

  • Photography: Brad Feinknopf

    Photography: Brad Feinknopf

  • Photography: Brad Feinknopf

    Photography: Brad Feinknopf

  • Photography: Brad Feinknopf

    Photography: Brad Feinknopf

  • Photography: Brad Feinknopf

    Photography: Brad Feinknopf

  • Photography: Brad Feinknopf

    Photography: Brad Feinknopf

  • Photography: Brad Feinknopf

    Photography: Brad Feinknopf

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Education

2021 WAN Awards entry: The University of Chicago Woodlawn Student Residences and Dining Commons - Elkus Manfredi Architects

The University of Chicago Woodlawn Student Residences and Dining Commons by Elkus Manfredi Architects is an entry in the Education category of the 2021 WAN Awards

by Copy taken from 2021 entry 16 June 2021 2021

The University of Chicago has a history of academic excellence. Its leaders attribute part of this success to its residential “House” system, which promotes community and intellectual exchange within cohorts of undergraduates who live, dine, and study together. The architect's brief called for living and dining accommodations that support this House model for 1,300 undergraduate students.

The balanced design addresses connectivity, context, massing/scale, sustainability, and affordability.

•Sitting on a compact site, the 385,000-gsf facility consists of four residential wings—three six-story wings and one fifteen-story wing—set on a common single-story level. The plan achieves eleven Houses, each consisting of three stacked 40-person floorplates with a variety of unit configurations. Three-story vertical lounges unite the floors – a physical and metaphorical House connector.

•The building configuration creates a ground-level courtyard surrounded by common spaces with floor-to-ceiling glass. Amenities include dining facilities, multi-use rooms, music rooms, a community kitchen, plus apartments for staff and Resident Deans. A rooftop garden adds outdoor space for students to connect with each other and nature.

•High-performance concrete panels on the upper levels delineate each House, the limestone color and proportions referencing historic campus buildings. The cladding along 61st Street changes to red and buff brick– chosen for its compatibility with the adjacent neighborhood.

Built to LEED Silver standards, UChicago’s Woodlawn Student Residences and Dining Commons artfully achieves the University’s programmatic needs, while meeting stringent cost and schedule objectives. Students moved into the new residence halls amid the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020.

All the information about how to enter the 2021 WAN Awards is here.  

We are very happy to offer support so please don’t hesitate to email Shakira Browne, Senior Event Manager with any questions at [email protected].  

Last year more than 40 countries took part in the WAN Awards with strong showings from Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. And we saw some truly outstanding interior designs, take a look at the winners from last year here.


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