Visitors will find the University of Chicago easier to navigate in the coming weeks and months, as new signs and maps are installed around campus and on major roadways.
The new navigational tools are part of a four-year effort to expand, improve and unify University signage. Clear markers will guide pedestrians and car drivers, making it easier to find the University from major highways, and to locate popular campus destinations once people arrive. Such changes are designed to make the physical campus a more open, welcoming destination.
“The University of Chicago campus is home to a rich array of scholarly and cultural resources that attract faculty, students and visitors from around the city and the world,” said University Architect Steve Wiesenthal. “The new signage program will make our campus hospitable and convenient not only to our guests, but also to members of the UChicago community.”
First-phase implementation of the project, which began this week, includes the installation of directional signage to and from campus from Lake Shore Drive, the Dan Ryan Expressway (I-94) and the Chicago Skyway (I-90); signs directing visitors and University of Chicago Medicine patients to parking; and new maps posted at 18 locations around campus.
In addition, several buildings on the main Quadrangles will receive new identifying markers. These new maroon signs are prototypes; eventually, all campus buildings will receive new signs, which are designed to be more visible and easier to read than the current signs, many of which date to the University's 1992 centennial signage program.
Facilities Services will solicit feedback on the prototype building signs before they are installed across campus as part of the signage project’s third phase in summer 2014.
Other way-finding improvements to come include:
- 20 pedestrian directional signs that will guide visitors to popular destinations across campus, such as the Office of Admissions, Oriental Institute and Smart Museum of Art, as well as the hospitals and outpatient clinics at the University of Chicago Medicine
- Large stone, steel and glass “gateway markers” near both the Midway and 55th Street, welcoming visitors to campus
- Stone columns bearing the University crest, designed to mark the edges of campus
- Updated regulatory signs denoting handicap-accessible routes and fire lanes
Questions and feedback about the new signage may be directed to Richard Bumstead, Associate Director for the Campus Environment in Facilities Services, at rcbumste@uchicago.edu.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
