Loyola Releases Campus Plan Detailing Next Decade of Development

Loyola publicly released the long-awaited Campus Plan Wednesday afternoon in the Sept. 4 edition of Loyola News. The Campus Plan is Loyola’s guide for the next decade of development including demolitions, new construction and renovations of university properties.

Patrick Brawley, university architect and assistant vice president for campus planning, said the included recommendations aren’t definitive, but there is a “high probability” they will materialize in the future.

For example, Brawley said the need for a new science building is clear but there are still multiple factors determining the specific location the new building would occupy.

The official release follows the launch of the Neighborhood Input phase of the university’s campus planning process, which was marked by two virtual town hall meetings and the release of an interactive website for collecting community input, The Phoenix reported.

Rogers Park and Edgewater

Loyola purchased the 1226-34 W Loyola Ave. building and adjoining lot in December 2023, The Phoenix previously reported. The purchase added to the properties the university already owned on the other side of West Loyola Avenue, — 1241 Loyola Ave. and two vacant lots. The university plans to tear down the building in September 2025 after the active leases end.

The campus plan recommends the university combine all of its landholdings on West Loyola Avenue into one larger property which would purposefully cut off the street from North Sheridan Road in an effort to reduce traffic at the intersection of North Sheridan Road and West Arthur Avenue.

Brawley said the university may turn this combined lot into a greenspace or athletic field. While the campus plan suggests West Loyola Avenue as a possible space for new recreation fields with a support building and space for the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. Brawley said Loyola isn’t currently looking to pursue projects at the location.

“The West Loyola properties likely are something that wouldn’t be acted on probably till after this 10 year horizon,” Brawley said.

The Vedgewater Community Garden, located at 6300 N Broadway, is a nonprofit and neighborhood garden run by the Edgewater Environmental Coalition operated on land owned by Loyola. Next door is the closed Edgewater Antique Mall at 6314 N. Broadway, another university property, according to the plan and Loyola’s community input map.

The campus plan recommends combining these properties and developing a new residential tower on the site to help fulfill the need for new student residential spaces.

Residence Halls

Several residence halls are identified in the plan as outdated and challenging to renovate.

Campion Hall, Georgetown Hall, Seattle Hall, Xavier Hall, Le Moyne Hall and Lakeside 6300 are all recommended for demolition by the campus plan. Brawley said they don’t have a specific plan on when these halls will be torn down as they are still analyzing how to time decommissioning these dorms without facing a significant loss of beds.

“600 new beds is what we need and I think it’s 1000 beds we need to renovate,” Brawley said. “So this is just looking at kind of the process, like this is looking at, how do you achieve that without thinking about sequencing and something going offline?”

All of these buildings, save for Campion, are recommended for replacement with larger, modern residence halls according to the campus plan. The current Seattle and Xavier Hall properties are recommended to be combined with the adjacent Winthrop playlot to open up a larger space for a new dorm building.

The locations of Le Moyne Hall and Lakeside 6300, which neighbor Francis Hall at the end of the block of North Winthrop Avenue, are recommended to be conjoined into a larger building spanning the current two lots. Brawley said this project is colloquially known as “Francis Two” inside Loyola’s Facilities Department because the original construction of Francis Hall left open the possibility for adjacent buildings to eventually be connected.

“There’s no design for it, other than to say, ‘Hey it could connect in floor-to-floor but we haven’t designed it,’” Brawley said. “But we just vocally call it ‘Francis Phase Two’ in that area, just because when that building was done, it was designed in a way to accommodate that.”

Campion Hall is also recommended for demolition by the plan and Brawley said it’s certain the building will be removed. Instead of replacement with a newer dorm, however, Campion is the top recommendation for the location of the new Nursing and Health Sciences building.

Nursing and Science

Two key university priorities identified by the campus plan are the need for a new Integrated Sciences Building and new Nursing and Health Sciences Building. The current location of the Sullivan Center is the prime recommendation for the new Sciences Building and Campion Hall is the top proposal for the NHSB.

Campion Hall’s location is currently under-utilized, Brawley said, because the site’s zoning allows for a build height of 90 feet, which Campion is far below. Brawley said the university wants to fully leverage the potential of the location using a new nursing building as urban advertising of a visible, high-use academic building.

Part of the reasoning behind the need for a new Sciences building is to replace Flanner Hall, which is another building designated for demolition by the campus plan. Flanner is no longer practical as a science teaching space and the Integrated Sciences Building would house the required labs and facilities, according to the plan.

Alternate locations for both the NHSB and Integrated Sciences Building include the current Flanner Hall location, the location where Centennial Forum previously stood and the Kenmore Lawn south of Ignatius House.

Brawley said the goal in demolishing properties when there’s no immediate plans to begin construction on replacement projects is to have temporary greenspaces. For example, he said once all work is done tearing down Centennial Forum around November there will likely be a greenspace there for the next two-to-five years.

This temporary greenspace condition would also likely apply to the West Loyola Ave combined lot, which Brawley said could be a high demand space for intramural and other activities.

“In our eyes, we want to get positive use that’s over there and a use that is congruent with what the neighbors would like to see happening in that space,” Brawley said.

Renovations and Streetscapes

The campus plan recommends several Loyola athletics facilities for improvements. The Norville Athletics Center will be receiving enhancements to academic learning spaces available for student athletes and the Alfie Norville Practice Facility is receiving additional office space, according to Brawley.

The plan recommends renovations to Hoyne Field as well, including enhancements for the fan experience and improvements to locker rooms for visiting teams to bring the facility in line with the university’s peer competitor, according to Brawley.

Sean Earl Field, a small soccer field and three-lane track next to the Norville Practice Facility, is designated in the plan as a potential location for future construction. Brawley said the purpose of this recommendation is to show there’s available space on the field if there is a project in need of it, but he acknowledged it would come at a cost.

“I will tell you in conversations, everyone has said in leadership, ‘Well if you put something there, then that project will have a field on top of it,’” Brawley said. “Because we can’t go without having recreational space.”

Several roadways around campus are recommended for modifications in the plan. The campus plan recommends extending the Kenmore Avenue Path or Ignatius Plaza — the pedestrian-only block between West Sheridan Road and West Rosemont Avenue — north to Cuneo Hall and around the Campus Loop Road.

“Quinlan and Flanner — they feel like they’re on an island because you have to cross over what is a road and aesthetically is heavily reinforced as a road,” Brawley said. “We want it to be that when you cross Sheridan and you go through the light that you are on campus, and we really want that to come through.”

Across the stretch of West Sheridan Road between the Mundelein Center and Regis Hall, the plan recommends a series of modifications including reducing the number of southbound lanes from two to one to create a dedicated turning lane into the Campus loop and the addition of a median.

The plan also recommends new “campus gateways” at both ends of the Campus Loop Road and an increased number of pedestrian crossing and radar feedback signs along West Sheridan. Streetscape improvements alongside both sides of North Sheridan Road near Fordham Hall are also included.

The stretch of North Winthrop from Regis Hall to Lakeside 6300 is recommended for conversion into a “woonerf-style roadway” similar to Ignatius Plaza. Woonerf is a Dutch term for living street and this type of road gives pedestrians priority over vehicles. Brawley said while they have yet to determine if it would be pedestrian only, it would at least be more pedestrian-oriented to enhance the safety of students traversing the area.

Coffey Hall, originally built in 1962 as Mundelein College’s dorm and currently used primarily for offices, is also recommended for demolition. Situated beside the Mundelein Center and behind Piper Hall, the plan recommends replacing Coffey with a south campus quad, which would open up a sightline making Madonna della Strada Chapel visible to drivers and pedestrians from North Sheridan Road.

Additionally, the plan recommends the construction of a smaller building behind Piper Hall which Brawley said would most likely be a conference center or large seminar room to take advantage of the lakefront view. Brawley said offices located in Coffey Hall could be moved to BVM Hall where there’s currently excess capacity.

Dumbach Hall, the oldest building on the Lake Shore Campus, has already undergone a series of renovations to the building facade, masonry work and roof. The plan also recommends interior accessibility improvements such as adding an entrance on the West side of the building, more restrooms and reconfiguring classroom sizes, according to Brawley.

Cudahy Library is slated to be redeveloped to become a space with the ability to provide more services beyond just being a “repository for books,” according to Brawley.

Water Tower and Health Science Campuses

Although there are no construction or demolition suggestions for the Water Tower Campus, the plan recommends the university create a Strategic Operations and Academic Plan to identify how to improve low levels of space utilization at the downtown campus.

Brawley said the university is considering relocating some classes or administrative functions from Lake Shore Campus to Water Tower Campus as an alternative to further construction, following the completion of the Strategic Operations and Academic Plan.

The campus plan recommends the addition of a new 75,000 to 130,000 square foot research facility at Loyola’s Health Sciences Campus in Maywood, Illinois where the Stritch School of Medicine and Niehoff School of Nursing are located. This building would have similar facilities to the Center for Transitional Research and Education, another Health Sciences Campus research facility.

The plan identifies two possible locations for this new building — the greenspace North of the Niehoff Nursing Building or the existing location of Maguire Hall. The Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center is also recommended for phased renovations of all its research lab spaces.

No Development

The majority of Loyola’s landholdings don’t have new developments described in the campus plan. The following is a list of properties owned by the university with no recommended changes.

Albion at Loyola Station – 1219 W Albion Ave

Arcade Residences – 1135 W Sheridan Rd

Arnold Fine Arts Annex – 1131 W Sheridan Rd

Arrupe House Jesuit Residence – 1030 W Loyola Ave

Bellarmine Hall – 6628 N Sheridan Rd

Burrowes Hall – 6333 N Sheridan Rd

Campus Safety – 1115 W Granville

Canisius Hall – 6246 N Kenmore Ave

Chipotle Mexican Grill – 6600 N Sheridan Rd

Crown Center – 1001 W Loyola Ave

Cudahy Science Hall – 6460 N Kenmore Ave

Cuneo Hall – 6430 N Kenmore Ave

Damen Student Center – 6511 N Sheridan Rd

De Nobili Hall – 6350 N Kenmore Ave

Doyle Center – 1052 W Loyola Ave

Dunkin’ Donuts – 1115 W Granville

Fairfield Hall – 6228-40 N Winthrop Ave

Flex Lab – 6339 N Broadway

Fordham Garage – 6461 N Sheridan Rd

Fordham Hall – 6455 N Sheridan Rd

Francis Hall – 6314 N Winthrop Ave

Gentile Arena – 6525 N Sheridan Rd

Gino’s North – 1115 W Granville

Gonzaga Hall – 6235 N Kenmore Ave

Granada Center – 6440 N Sheridan Rd

Hampton Inn at Loyola Station – 1209 W Albion Ave

Hopkins House – 6256 N Winthrop Ave

Ignatius House – 6324 N Kenmore Ave

Information Commons – 6501 N Kenmore Ave

Institute of Environmental Sustainability – 6349 N Kenmore Ave

Lakeside 1116 – 1116 W Loyola Ave

Lakeside 6241 – 6241 N Winthrop Ave

Vacant Lot – 6247 N Broadway

Loyola Hall – 1112 W Loyola Ave

Loyola Mailroom – 6317 N Broadway

Madonna della Strada Chapel – 6453 N Kenmore Ave

Marquette Hall – 6255 N Kenmore Ave

Marquette South – 6241 N Kenmore Ave

Mertz Hall – 1125 W Loyola Ave

Messina Hall – 6229 N Winthrop Ave

Metropolis Coffee – 1039 W Granville Ave

Mundelein Center – 1020 W Sheridan Rd

Piper Hall – 970 W Sheridan Rd

Porkchop Edgewater – 6341 N Broadway

Quinlan Life Sciences Center – 1050 W Sheridan Rd

Regis Hall – 6340 N Winthrop Ave

Saint Joseph’s Hall – 1120 W Loyola Ave

San Francisco Hall – 6327 N Kenmore Ave

Santa Clara Hall – 1000 W Loyola Ave

Sherry Hall – 6330 N Sheridan Rd

Simpson LLC – 6333 N Winthrop Ave

St. Louis Hall – 6244 N Winthrop Ave

Steam Chiller Plant – 1047 W Loyola Ave

Spring Hill Hall – 6211 N Winthrop Ave

The Montserrat at Loyola – 6550 N Sheridan Rd

The Sovereign – 1040 W Granville Ave

Winthrop Garden – 1110 W Loyola Ave