McCormick Theological Seminary
Chicago, Illinois

Architect: Knight Architects Engineers Planners

This new 41,000 square foot facility houses student gathering spaces, administrative, and faculty office functions on three floors. Located on the fourth side of a courtyard bounded on the other three sides by the Lutheran School of Theology, the building is intended to promote collaboration and resource-sharing between the two institutions.

A shared underground parking facility of 65,000 square feet serves as the base of the new facility and extends beneath the entire courtyard.  The Project location – in a very congested residential area of Hyde Park and restricted on three sides by occupied buildings whose foundations extend to within a few feet of the underground garage – demanded an extremely sensitive job approach.  Further, since the entire site was to be reconstructed, no dedicated areas were available for staging or storage.  This element called for a creative approach to Site Logistics and Access and a very detailed Site Coordination Plan.

Performing as an integral member of the Project Team, Sollitt provided extensive Preconstruction Services such as Budgeting, Scheduling, Value Engineering, and Site Logistics and Phasing Analyses to help determine the most cost-effective methods for attacking these problems.  Sollitt was also retained by the neighboring Lutheran School of Theology for two separate projects totaling $2.5 million designed to link with the new facility.