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| Image of Goodman Center at the Southeast corner of Congress and Wabash (photo via Curbed Chicago) |
Designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB), the new athletic facility will serve as the future home of Roosevelt University's basketball team, the Lakers. Quite a bit of work has transpired since our visit to the site in late June. Exterior work is nearly complete, and we're on board with the irregularly fenestrated facade, which matches up very closely with the renderings. In addition to a 500-seat gym with retractable bleachers, the 27,834-square foot structure will house administrative offices, a training room, student lounge, meeting rooms, and locker rooms. It is scheduled to open its doors in December.It sure was completed fast and generally speaking we also like the looks of the building. While it serves it's purpose, it doesn't really add much to the Sloop in our opinion. However, it does take away one more empty lot which we like.
The strangest thing in our mind is how small the facility is. It seems like an expensive structure on a very prime piece of real estate to build a 500 seat gym. My high-school teams gym drew more than 500 people. If they built a bigger gym, maybe they could have hosted concerts or something.
Apparently they know something we don't.
