Loyola's $30M Library Expansion Passes Test

CHICAGO-Loyola University of Chicago students and community activists got an “A” for effort last week, but their arguments aimed at delaying the private school’s $30-million library expansion failed to sway the plan commission. The Jesuit university is set to break ground in June on the 73,000-sf Information Commons building next to its Cudahy Library, vice president of strategic planning Wayne Magdziarz tells GlobeSt.com, with completion expected by the fall semester of 2007-08.

The four-story library addition would be along the lakefront, on the eastern end of Loyola University’s campus. The “virtual library” will be driven by technology, rather than stocked with books, which would be available in the neighboring Cudahy Library. Opponents say the building eliminates the remaining open space along Lake Michigan and reduces access to the lakefront.

However, the new space needed to be connected to the Cudahy Library, says Solomon Cordwell Buenz president John Lahey. “The building really had to go adjacent to it,” he says. “Loyola’s campus doesn’t have that many spaces on it.”