OMA has been the studio responsible for designing the new arts center of the UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago). The building will be located in one of the corners of the campus, in an area called Harrison Field. The Center will be an outstanding landmark that unites the West Loop and the Campus.
The OMA project consists of a public center for performance and meeting, and a home for the School of Theater and Music, and as such it will have of a concert hall, a flexible hall, main theater, instrumental rehearsal rooms and coral and theatrical production workshops.

The design proposes two towers: a student tower that faces the campus and a public tower that looks at the landscape of the city. The large ramps flow from the street to the second level, which connects the interior and exterior performance spaces.
 

Description of project by OMA

The Center will be located on the northwest corner of UIC's east side of campus at Halsted and Harrison streets, on a currently vacant lot known as Harrison Field. Visible from three expressways as well as from downtown Chicago, the Center will be a prominent landmark that bridges the West Loop and Campus.

The design was inspired by the campus' original designer, Walter Netsch, reinterpreting his principles to conceive a unique flexibility for the concert hall.

Shohei Shigematsu said, "Our design focuses on fostering dialogue between performance and the public – the new building will be a connector between the city and UIC’s urban campus. In collaboration with the College of Architecture, Design and the Arts and the School of Theatre and Music, we hope to create an openness and extreme accessibility by introducing a new platform for the diverse activities of UIC.”

As a public, urban hub for performance and gathering, and a home for the School of Theatre and Music, the project required an 88,000-gross-square-foot building with a 500-seat vineyard-style concert hall and a 270-seat flexible main stage theater, as well as instrumental and choral rehearsal halls and theater production shops. Also included are supporting facilities, a donor lounge, a small café/jazz club, and exhibition space.

OMA/KOO’s concept design proposes two towers: a student tower that faces the campus and opens to a performance park along the Peoria Street bridge, and a public tower that looks to the city scape and opens to a Phase One screening plaza along Halsted Street. Large ramps flow from the street to an “accessible topography of performances” on the second level, connecting the outdoor and indoor performances spaces, including the concert hall between the towers, and the Phase Two main stage theatre on Halsted Street. Production spaces line Harrison Street on the ground floor.

The center has a translucent, tent-like roof with embedded photovoltaics that stretches from and between the towers, covering the concert hall and the main stage theatre. The colors of the performance space volumes would shine through the translucent areas.

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Architects
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OMA. Partner Architect.- Shohei Shigematsu. Associate Architect.- Christy Cheng. Project Architect.- Jackie Woon Bae.
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Team Competition
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Jan Casimir, Titouan Chapouly, Marie-Claude Fares, Olivia Haynie, Sukjoo Hong, Freddy Maggiorani, Andres Rabano, Stephen Steckel, Thuy Trang Trinh, Linjie Wang.
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Client
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University of Illinois at Chicago
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Date
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Ongoing
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Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond. 

OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.

OMA’s completed projects include Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux (2024), LANTERN in Detroit (2024), Mangalem 21 in Tirana (2023), Aviva Studios – Factory International in Manchester (2023), Apollolaan 171 in Amsterdam (2023), Buffalo AKG Art Museum in Buffalo (2023), Toranomon Hills Station Tower in Tokyo (2023), Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).

AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU. 

AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.

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Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. OMA's buildings and masterplans around the world insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities for content and everyday use. OMA is led by ten partners – Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, David Gianotten, Chris van Duijn, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Jason Long and Michael Kokora – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, Doha and Dubai.

Responsible for OMA’s operations in America, OMA New York was established in 2001 and has since overseen the successful completion of several buildings across the country including Milstein Hall at Cornell University (2011); the Wyly Theater in Dallas (2009); the Seattle Central Library (2004); the IIT Campus Center in Chicago (2003); and Prada’s Epicenter in New York (2001). The office is currently overseeing the construction of three cultural projects, including the Musée National des Beaux-arts du Québec and the Faena Arts District in Miami Beach – both scheduled for completion in 2016 – as well as a studio expansion for artist Cai Guo Qiang in New York. The New York office has most recently been commissioned to design a number of residential towers in San Francisco, New York, and Miami, as well as two projects in Los Angeles; the Plaza at Santa Monica, a mixed use complex in Los Angeles, and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

OMA New York’s ongoing engagements with urban conditions around the world include a new civic center in Bogota, Colombia; a post-Hurricane Sandy, urban water strategy for New Jersey; the 11th Street Bridge Park and RFK Stadium-Armory Campus Masterplan in Washington, DC; and a food hub in West Louisville, Kentucky.

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Shohei Shigematsu born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan in 1973. In 1996 graduated from the Department of Architecture at Kyushu University. Studying at the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam. He became an associate in 2004, joined OMA in 1998 and became a partner in 2008.

Sho is responsible for delivering several projects across North America, including Milstein Hall, an extension to the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University; a new museum for the Musée national des Beaux-arts du Québec; the Faena Forum, a multi-purpose venue in Miami Beach; the renovation and reimagination of Sotheby’s Headquarters in New York; the Audrey Irmas Pavilion, a new event and gathering space extension for the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles; and a holistic campus renovation and a new building for the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York. Sho’s cultural buildings currently in progress include a museum expansion for the New Museum in New York City and a new arts centre with a theatre and concert hall for the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Expanding upon his built work for museums and cultural institutions, Sho engages the art world through various facets, from collaborations with artists such as Cai Guo-Qiang and Marina Abramović to structures and strategies integrating landscape and resiliency including an underwater art park and distinct structure for the ReefLine in Miami Beach and a mushroom pavilion in Mexico.

Sho’s works in the fashion industry span typologies and scales, from redefined retail spaces as mediums for branding to exploration of exhibitions and scenographies as narrative mediums. In Japan, Sho led the design and successful completion of the Coach flagship in Tokyo and is currently overseeing Harajuku Quest, a cultural and commercial platform connecting Omotesando and Harajuku. Sho has worked with fashion brands and houses, as well as museums, on major exhibition designs—Louis Vuitton Visionary Journeys in Bangkok; Dior retrospectives in Denver, Dallas, and Tokyo; Prada “Waist Down” in Tokyo, Seoul, New York, and Los Angeles; and Manus x Machina at the Met Costume Institute.

Sho has built several innovative workspaces and mixed-use buildings, including the China Central TelevisionHeadquarters in Beijing (2012), the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Headquarters (2013), Tenjin Business Center in Fukuoka, Japan (2021), and most recently, the Toranomon Hills Station Tower for Mori Building Co, Ltd. In Tokyo(2023). His innovation centre design for the Chicago Center for Education & Research for Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) and the University of Illinois System is currently underway.

Sho has lectured at TED and Wired Japan conferences, and universities throughout the world. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP), Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), and Columbia University GSAPP. He has been a professor at Kyushu University of Human Environment Studies and Director of BeCAT (Built Environment Center with Art & Technology) since 2021.

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Published on: May 22, 2019
Cite: "OMA winner of the competition for the UIC Center for the Arts" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/oma-winner-competition-uic-center-arts> ISSN 1139-6415
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