Final 2024 Community Meeting Discusses Progress on Campus Plan

Loyola’s campus planning team held its third and final community meeting of 2024 Nov. 5. The meeting summarized progress on the university’s 10-year Campus Plan and previewed 2025 developments.

The plan focuses on expanding classrooms, teaching labs and student support spaces while fostering stronger ties with Edgewater and Rogers Park, according to Associate Vice President of Neighborhood Initiatives Jennifer Clark. University officials said they aim to minimize disruptions to the surrounding neighborhood by engaging in outreach services, including community meetings, surveys and opportunities for online feedback. 

Clark said it’s important for the team to ensure services for current students are met on a daily basis while preparing for new developments simultaneously. 

“This plan is driven by student success,” Clark said. “It’s about improving infrastructure and building a stronger community both on and off campus.”

Clark described the plan as a “rolling process,” which means it will adapt to changes in funding and financing priorities over time. She presented the planning team’s interactive campus map which shows potential areas for development.

Assistant Vice President for Campus Planning and University Architect Patrick Brawley said Loyola is prioritizing productive use of underutilized lots the university currently owns. The proposed developments include a mix of recreational spaces and community-accessible facilities. The team has yet to finalize details about exact purposes and designs.

Brawley said Loyola acquired a six-story former storage facility at 6347 N. Broadway Sept. 3 2024. The building is sandwiched between properties Loyola immediately owns, such as the Arcade Residences, which the university purchased in September 2023, and the Porkchop restaurant. 

Plans are underway to repurpose it as an academic building instead of demolishing it. The goal is to have this building available and in use for the Fall 2026 academic year, according to Brawley, 

“This is really a fundamental Keystone building for us,” Brawley said. “This really helps us unlock what we’re trying to achieve in our campus plan. We have a lot of needs in terms of space.” 

Campion Hall will close at the end of the Spring 2025 semester, and is set for demolition in summer 2025 after students move out. The university is considering replacing the building with a Nursing and Health Sciences building, The Phoenix reported.

Community members voiced concerns about demolishing the residence hall, raising issues like Loyola’s limited undergraduate housing and lack of housing options for graduate students. Brawley said while the team identified housing as a need in the Campus Plan, current student housing trends have shown the demolition of Campion Hall won’t reduce available housing on campus.

Loyola is also evaluating the vacant surface parking lot that it owns, maintains and operates at West Albion Avenue and North Sheridan Road adjacent to the Hampton Inn for a potential 90-foot building with six floors. Further community engagement is planned in early 2025 to determine designs and uses. 

Along with the vacant lot, Loyola plans to demolish the building it acquired last year at 1234 W. Loyola Ave., which houses several residential and commercial units, The Phoenix previously reported.

One community member asked about the status of the building’s residential and commercial leases, claiming individuals who’ve already moved out including Loyola students who previously resided in the building, haven’t received assured compensation.

Brawley said the university plans to honor every lease through its expiration and work with all residential and commercial residents to meet their individual needs. He didn’t say specifically what efforts will be taken to aid residents.

Two commercial residents, the Edge Art and the Roman Susan art galleries, have had their leases extended. The Edge Art Gallery’s lease was extended until the end of December, while Roman Susan’s expires in September 2025, according to Brawley.

Based on community outreach findings, Loyola’s planning initiative identified top priorities for local residents — including climate action, security and education — which closely aligned with third-party assessments conducted by the university’s consulting partner, RDG Planning and Design.

Director of Neighborhood Initiatives Summer Roberts said Loyola’s Neighborhood Initiative team partnered with RDG to gather community input for the plan using online surveys on its website. The platform garnered feedback from over 600 participants and was available in four languages, such as Spanish, Tagalog and Arabic.

“We ensured the highest diversity of participation possible,” Roberts said. “I think it really reflects how robust the outreach was that we did and the degree to which we really got a lot of feedback from our community.”

The findings informed a design meeting made up of 40 community members. Clark said members were chosen based on their residential locations and their activity in Campus Plan meetings and surveys to ensure a diverse representation of input.

The participants then worked with the planning team to envision improvements while accounting for potential changes, such as the CTA Red and Purple Line modernization, as well as the need to maintain campus operations during construction. The discussions focused on areas such as West Loyola Avenue and North Winthrop Avenue. 

A few questions about the relocation of library storage and the eventual demolition of the Sullivan Center came up during the presentation. Previous rumors regarding the relocation of library books were addressed by the university in October, and Brawley re-enforced a plan for on-campus library storage, though no immediate plans are currently in development.

Brawley discussed looking at the opening of a new “pavilion” on the West Loyola side on existing property. The exact location is still to be determined while the team conducts study, which will aid in gathering information and strategies for the project, according to Brawley. 
Clark said Loyola will continue to seek community feedback on design and development plans. In 2025, updates on specific projects will be provided. The team sent out an email Dec. 9 with a link to a video of the meeting and information on how to access the interactive map allowing community members to leave further feedback.