North Park University

Nancy and G. Timothy Johnson Center for Science and Community Life

  • 04/01/15
North Park University

PHOTOS © MARK BALLOGG

The mission of North Park University in Chicago is to educate today’s students for meaningful careers and to prepare them for lives of community service. The name of the new three-story, $45-million, 101,000-squarefoot Nancy and G. Timothy Johnson Center for Science and Community Life describes its unique combination of academic and community-building facilities, planned and designed to fulfill the university’s mission. The building was developed primarily to raise the quality of the university’s science-related education programs. The project’s central location on campus also offered the opportunity to build a facility with a needed social setting for bringing students and faculty together.

The building program includes new laboratories for biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, psychology and general science. Additional general-access classrooms consist of tiered horseshoe-shaped fixed-seating rooms for 36 students and a 120-seat tiered lecture hall. Small seminar rooms support larger academic rooms. Smart technology is featured in the classrooms and laboratories, including lecture-capture capabilities, real-time sharing of data for collaboration and group activity, HDTV interactive SmartPodiums and wireless airplay from iPads. Every lab is ADA-compliant for accessibility, and the building features more than $850,000 in state-of-the-art science equipment.

A community space supported by a café is centrally located on the entry level and lounges are dispersed throughout the building to encourage student and faculty interaction. The architecture is designed to fit into the campus context of fine traditional buildings dressed in masonry and stone.

The Johnson Center merges the concepts of student life with science, and also houses all aspects of student engagement at the university, including Residence Life and Housing, Career Development and Internships, Student Success, the International Office and University Ministries.

The facility was designed by longtime architectural partner to the university, VOA Associates Inc., and built by W.B. Olson, Inc. The building received LEED Gold certification in January 2015.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • a traditional red brick school building with the right side visibly deteriorated and the left side well-maintained, surrounded by neat landscaping

    Making the Grade: Navigating Funding Uncertainty in K-12 Schools

    School districts across the country must prepare for all possible funding scenarios by analyzing school asset and infrastructure conditions, understanding their funding needs, and developing a proactive maintenance strategy to stretch their funding dollars.

  • East Carolina University Selects Architect for $60M Residence Hall Renovations

    East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., recently announced that it has selected the KWK/Jenkins Peer Architects (JPA) team, collaborating with INTREPID Architecture, to design renovations for two of its residence halls, according to a news release.

  • DreamBox Math

    Discovery Education Debuts Enhancements to DreamBox Math

    Discovery Education recently announced that DreamBox Math, an online math program for K–8 students to supplement core instruction, has been updated to improve accessibility for K–5 students, according to a news release. DreamBox Math provides personalized instruction by adapting to individual learners’ responses and providing an engaging, dynamic learning environment.

  • Mesa West Capital Provides Loan to Refinance University of Georgia Residence Complex

    Mesa West Capital recently announced that it has provided a $133.9-million, short-term, first mortgage loan to developer LV Collective (“LV”) to refinance a student housing complex near the University of Georgia, according to a news release. Rambler Athens, a 750-bed residence hall adjacent to the campus, was completed in August 2024.