You say that you’ve walked through IIT Main Campus for years but have never heard of the Galvin-Pritzker Grove? (Hint: It’s right in the heart of campus.) After viewing this slideshow, perhaps you’ll be more in the know about the grove and some other outdoor and indoor places on Main Campus that you may regularly “see.”
Footlik Lane
Named in recognition of IIT benefactors Irving M. Footlik (ME ’39) and his wife, Sylvia, this north-south path runs through Main Campus from 31st Street to 35th Street. Along the way are several points of interest such as The Rock, a likely candidate for Chicago’s smallest public park, and bold displays of public art.
Photo: Scott Benbrook
The Rock
Originally part of an exhibit at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, The Rock was given to Armour Institute and had its first campus home in front of Armour Mission. It was then moved to its present location at the southeast corner of Hermann Hall. A smaller rock can be found outside of S. R. Crown Hall. Is it a chip off the old Rock? No one seems to know for sure…
Photo: Scott Benbrook
Chicago’s Smallest Public Park
As members of the IIT community we all may feel a little possessive about sculptor George Segal’s Man on a Bench (1986), but we’ll need to get over that, pronto. Why? Because the Chicago Park District has designated the sculpture as Park No. 474. While it’s described as being “perhaps the smallest park in the district,” we’ll still need to share its 6’x9’ expanse with the entire city.
Campus Art/S.O.O.
Outdoor public art can also be found in front of three buildings along Footlik Lane:
- S.O.O., a hollow metal polyhedron designed by Lincoln Schatz, is on the west lawn of the John T. Rettaliata Engineering Center.
Photo: Scott Benbrook
Campus Art/Steel Sculpture
The red-orange Steel Sculpture, a series of beams stacked horizontally, vertically, and diagonally, is on the lawn north of Alumni Hall. It is a teaching aid commissioned by the American Institute of Steel Construction.
Photo: Scott Benbrook
Campus Art/Concurrence
- Local artist Terrence Karpowicz designed Concurrence, painted metal blocks atop a COR-TEN steel base, which is displayed at the entrance to Paul V. Galvin Library.
Photo: Scott Benbrook
Financial Computer Labs
To support the quant-driven programs of Stuart School of Business in its new IIT Tower location, two computer labs opened in fall 2014 that feature equipment and software exclusive to Stuart. While the lab is largely used for financial strategy development and implementation, the space has also been used to run trading simulations for visiting high school students and to showcase research.
Photo: Bonnie Robinson
Illuminated Campus
This illuminated tabletop model of the IIT microgrid is on display at the Robert W. Galvin Center for Electricity Innovation on the 16th floor of IIT Tower. The colors signify the specific microgrid loops at IIT. Developed by the Galvin Center as part of the U.S. Department of Energy-funded IIT Perfect Power project, the IIT microgrid is the first campuswide microgrid in the United States.
Photo: Michael Goss
WIIT Radio
IIT’s own student-operated radio station broadcasts from The McCormick Tribune Campus Center seven days a week. At 88.9 on the FM band and www.radio.iit.edu on the Web, WIIT features a variety of programs ranging from jazz to indie rock to talk. In 2010 the studio was renamed as the A. Sidney Katz Radio Studio in recognition of Katz, a 1962 electrical engineering alumnus and attorney, who was a WIIT deejay during his student days.
Photo: Scott Benbrook
UFarmIIT
The concept of developing a campus-scale urban farm connecting students to sustainably produced food sources began in 2011 as an Interprofessional Projects (IPRO) Program course. Three years later, the student organization UFarmIIT took over the project. The farm, located in IIT’s Greek quad, produces a variety of produce and even flowers during the summer growing season.
Photo: Bonnie Robinson
Galvin-Pritzker Grove
Established in 2003, the Galvin-Pritzker Grove, located on the southwest corner of 33rd Street and State Street, honors the two “Bobs”—Robert A. Pritzker (IE ’ 46) and Robert Galvin. Generous and longtime members of the IIT Board of Trustees, Galvin passed away on October 11, 2011 and Pritzker passed away just over two weeks later, on October 27.
Photo: Scott Benbrook