Downtown Chicago Eyed for Major Tech Hub
Downtown Chicago could have its own tech hub, if plans from the University of Illinois and the state come to fruition. (Courtesy Langham Chicago)
The University of Illinois and the state are pushing a plan to build on Chicago’s growing tech sector, calling for support from major institutions in the area to help support a tech lab in downtown Chicago.
Details are hazy now, but Crain’s is reporting the $100 million-per-year operation would draw support from Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, and other regional engines of high-tech knowledge, as well as the corporate community, for a facility or campus in the heart of the city.
Google and Motorola recently made high-profile decisions to expand operations in Chicago, and the Department of Energy named Argonne National Laboratory its national hub for battery research and technology development.
What this means for the local design community is unclear just yet, but as downtown and West Loop construction picks up it is clear that some developers are banking on growing demand.
Ray LaHood Touts High-Speed Rail at UIC Urban Forum
Ray LaHood. (Courtesy Ray LaHood/Facebook)
Cities matter. In the Midwest recent headlines have read like an urban planning syllabus: post-industrial rebirth attracts a new generation of urbanites downtown, the roll-out of high-speed rail begins to pick up pace, and while innovative solutions to the region’s well-documented problems abound, a lingering fiscal crisis and unfunded pension liabilities threaten to squash even the most attainable aspirations.
Those topics and more made the agenda at University of Illinois Chicago’s annual Urban Forum held Thursday, whose lineup included the mayors of Columbus and Pittsburgh, as well as U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. “Metropolitan Resilience in a Time of Economic Turmoil” was the topic at hand.
Panel Voids Architecture Contract at U of I for Conflict of Interest
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Miracc/Flickr)
The University of Illinois has come under fire from a state oversight board for allegedly violating state conflict-of-interest laws. A $4.6 million contract to renovate the Urbana-Champaign campus’ Natural History Building went to BLDD Architects—a central Illinois firm owned partially by a U of I planning administrator’s husband.
An advisory vote by the Procurement Board Tuesday sends the issue to the Illinois inspector general for investigation. The panel has voted twice to void the contract, but the state’s chief procurement officer for higher education vetoed the first vote.
The runner-up firms have said they will continue with BLDD’s design plans with minimal delay.
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