The John and Kathy Schreiber Center is the new home of Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business Administration. Located on a small corner parcel in the University’s dense urban Water Tower Campus, the restricted site required an innovative,10-story vertical design solution to accommodate a 150,000-square-foot program composed of lecture and active learning classrooms, a business analytics lab, faculty offices, career services center, numerous breakout spaces, and a conference center. Since its completion, the Schreiber Center has quickly become a transformative and exciting new academic, social, and business recruitment hub for the downtown campus.
Designed to foster faculty/student interaction and interdisciplinary collaboration, the career center and leadership hubs are located on the first two floors and are connected by a ground floor social stair which acts as a communal gathering space and presentation forum. The main classroom and office program is divided into four, two-story discreet “academic neighborhoods” organized on three sides around a central atrium. To provide abundant natural light and expansive views of the surrounding cityscape, the atrium is open to the south and its exterior wall is clad in a double-skin, operable, low-iron glass façade. The central atrium and façade also act as the building’s natural vertical exhaust system, providing free cooling during optimal periods. The LEED Gold facility achieved an overall 60 percent reduction in energy consumption through a high comfort/low impact approach, incorporating an efficient integrated façade with automated and fixed shading, operable windows, radiant heating and cooling mechanical systems.
