Students, faculty and staff are invited to celebrate the new Saieh Hall for Economics, home to the Department of Economics and the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics, at an open house between 4 and 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21.
The open house will include self-guided tours for participants to explore the historic building, along with free items such as buttons and coupons from the hall’s new coffee shop. This summer, the University completed a project of renovation and adaptive reuse, which preserved the building’s character while making it accessible and useful for current academic purposes with modern study areas, conference rooms, lecture halls and offices.
In June, the University named the iconic red-brick structure the Saieh Hall for Economics in recognition of University Trustee Alvaro Saieh, AM’76, PhD’80, who has made a significant donation to the University in support of the building’s renovation and adaptive reuse.
The open house, sponsored by the Division of the Social Sciences, the Department of Economics and the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics, will involve multimedia presentations about the building and Chicago economics. The multimedia elements will include a gallery of before and after images that provide context for the building’s transformation, as well as video interviews with Nobel laureate Gary Becker.
Saieh Hall was constructed between 1923 and 1927, and originally was home to the Chicago Theological Seminary. The University purchased the property in 2008 and launched an adaptive reuse project led by Ann Beha Architects, a recognized leader in the adaptive reuse of historical buildings. The building also earned the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver certification, and the Society for College and University Planning Honor Award for Excellence in Planning for a District or Campus Component.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
