It was to be a Campus Center in every sense of the word. A center for student life and university activities, located in the physical center of the campus and a unifying center, bridging the university’s academic and residential corridors with each other and the larger neighborhood.

That was the primary vision in the early 1990s when Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) began charting its course for the future. With a Main Campus Master Plan Update in hand, developed by Chicago Architect, IIT Trustee and Mies van der Rohe grandson Dirk Lohan, IIT senior leadership launched an international design competition for this new building. The objectives were clear. A Campus Center was needed to:

		Foster interaction among all segments of the university community
		Enhance the social life of the campus
		Offer broader horizons for technically oriented students
		Locate key services/programs centrally and conveniently
		Provide flexible, multi-purpose spaces
		Be Built for its time with advanced, innovative technology
		Serve as an architectural icon for the future
		Be a catalyst for ongoing neighborhood revitalization

This new Campus Center would be the focal point of IIT’s renewed Main Campus, among its first new buildings in nearly 40 years; turning what had been a no man’s land under elevated train tracks into a vibrant campus centerpiece built to express the architecture of our times, while complementing master modernist Mies van der Rohe's campus, one of the most important statements in 20th century architecture.

This new facility, too, would come to symbolize IIT’s revitalization, demonstrating the university’s commitment to a re-energized student environment, a dynamic academic and research community, the city of Chicago and the renaissance taking place in Chicago’s Near South Side neighborhoods from Bronzeville to Bridgeport to Chinatown.

In February 1998, Rem Koolhaas, Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam, was named the winner of the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation International Design Competition. In announcing the winner, Jury Chair Mack Scogin said, “Rem Koolhaas recognizes that a primary imperative facing the IIT campus is to create an urban intensity with a relatively low density of population. His innovative design creates an urban condition within the campus itself. It brings the students together not only physically, but spiritually.”

From the beginning, Koolhaas’ design had the students’ needs in mind. The footprint of the building followed the natural footprint that already existed on the property. It followed the pathways IIT students had themselves created as they criss-crossed under the “El” tracks, walking from the academic buildings on the west side of State Street, to the residence hall buildings on the east side of State Street.

The building’s future was assured when leaders of The McCormick Tribune Foundation demonstrated confidence in IIT and OMA vision, contributing $13 million toward the project’s cost. The generous gift reflected a long-standing passion for Chicago’s architecture and educational institutions by the foundation’s greatest benefactor, Colonel Robert R. McCormick.

Today, The McCormick Tribune Campus Center at IIT stands as a symbol of a university’s commitment to its own revitalization and that of the neighborhood that surrounds it. It also represents the dramatic force shaping the direction of architecture for the next century, stemming from the principles established by Mies van der Rohe and other modernists more than a half century ago.