The University of Chicago secured a building permit for a four-tower residential complex set to deliver 1,309 dormitory beds by the time it opens at the corner of 61st Street and Woodlawn Avenue in 2020.
All four buildings would sprout from a single one-story podium, where a student dining hall would be located, according to Curbed. Three of the four buildings would be seven stories tall, and a fourth would be 16 stories.
The Woodlawn Residential Commons represents the last major step in the university’s $450 million effort to fit 70 percent of its students in campus housing, while shifting student residences toward Woodlawn and away from Hyde Park.
The plan kicked off with the 2009 construction of the 811-bed Granville-Grossman Residential Commons at 6031 South Ellis Avenue, and Studio Gang’s Campus North Residential Commons added another 800 new dorm beds at 55th Street and University Avenue when it opened in 2016.
Woodlawn is bracing for a flood of new business investment expected to follow the Obama Presidential Center, whose plan for a Jackson Park campus was approved by the City Council this spring.
A few blocks to the north, meanwhile, Hyde Park is continuing to see development activity, including a 246-unit apartment tower at 1600 East 53rd Street from Antheus Capital.