LOGISTICS INSTITUTE CHICAGO

SEARL LAMASTER HOWE ARCHITECTS

WARD 28

This logistics institute, a hub for education and outreach, would harness technology and architecture to help revitalize a neighborhood that has long suffered due to its physical detachment from the rest of the city.  The institute would celebrate Chicago as a historic center of transportation networks, and mend the current isolation of this neighborhood with programs for both local residents as well as special events.

The project site at the northeast corner Western Avenue and 16th Street in Ward 28 is cut off from the west area of the ward by Ogden Avenue. It is also detached from downtown by rail lines. 16th Street ends is cut off at Western Avenue. Current vehicular and rail lines would not be re-routed, but would be allowed to run through the structure, creating an upper deck spanning over current boundaries to attach to more routes and elevate views to and from the distant city. The exhibit space is detailed as a magic carpet sheltering the institute’s structures below and serving as a beacon signifying the site.

The decentralization of services now realized through an intensely designed communications network transcends the traditional organization of the city's grid, which this area has long been severed from. A new importance is established not according to "where" the site lies, but rather where it is on the way to everywhere else. The structure occupies a moment, a space in time as much if not more than a place on the map. The structure is an identifier within a seemingly endless flow of information, people and vehicles, which it does not intend to disrupt, but rather refine and add meaning to through internal program.

Research and classroom spaces outfit the street level accessible to the artery of Western Avenue, offering neighborhood outreach in the form of both survey and training courses for after-school, weekend and summer programs. Study in programming, engineering, maintenance, driving, controls, and every stage of the delivery process could be explored.

CASE STUDY: SHIPPING & TRANSPORT COLLEGE

NEUTELINGS RIEDUK ARCHITECTS

ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

Located on an old pier in Rotterdam’s harbor, the Shipping and Transport College incorporates study of both maritime and logistics sectors. Overlooking the River Maas, the building’s form serves as an icon for the institute, evoking images of silo’s, cranes and ships, but programmatically pushes the building beyond Rotterdam’s historical significance of maritime shipping, into the study of global logistics.

Offices, public functions and educational spaces are combined in one center. Occupying the ground level are the more public restaurants, media and sports centers, as well as larger programs such as simulator rooms and workshops. Above the main level, the vertical orientation of classrooms is traversed with escalators letting students circulate rapidly through the building. A lecture hall crowns the building with views to the bustling port.

Building above the functional education value offered by the college, the architecture itself has bridged beyond the Rotterdam site, and is offered as a digital commodity for the online Megapolis video game.