Toni White has one of the best views of any college student, living in 2 E. 8th St., a Columbia College dorm in downtown Chicago. When most college students go off to campus for the first time, they typically end up in a dorm overlooking a grassy quad, classroom buildings, or perhaps the football stadium.
Not so at “Loop U,” a nickname for a recent phenomenon that this fall will bring more than 65,000 college students to live and study at more than 30 institutions of higher learning in and around downtown Chicago.
Danny Hsu / SAIC
The exterior of the Columbia College dorm known as 2 E. 8th St.
Brian Jackson / Sun-Times
A recent report published by DePaul University says the downtown population of college students has grown 25 percent in just the last five years, making it the “biggest college town in Illinois.”
Unlike traditional campuses, in which the institution owns all the land and every building is a college building, downtown dormitories (and classroom buildings) are interspersed along city streets like Wabash, Michigan and State, blending in with the existing buildings.
In fact, a number of them are converted from former office high rises. Some dorms are owned and managed by the colleges, but others are privately owned. All told, there are currently 15,000 to 20,000 dormitory beds for college students in the downtown area, not including “off-campus” rentals.
The ‘Real World’ generation
“The biggest shift occurred at the beginning of this decade,” said Jason Taylor, a senior associate with the Scion Group, which consults with universities and developers about student housing. “At the time [students] were referred to as the ‘Real World’ generation. They grew up watching ‘The Real World,’ which romanticized the idea of being a college student living on your own in the city.”
Instead of needing housing just for students from afar, downtown colleges started getting requests from metropolitan area students who wanted to live downtown, too.
“Columbia College, for example, has grown their enrollment by leaps and bounds in recent years,” Taylor said. “They have done such a good job of capturing this notion that students have of being in the city.”
Urban schools appeal to students who have an independent streak. They tend to be artistic and to enjoy things that are different from the norm.
“I am so glad I’m here,” said Liz Meenan, 20, a Columbia College student who hails from Rockford. “I am not a ‘school spirit, go to the game’ kind of person. You can get a real college experience here, but it’s your own college experience. I’m sure there are some negatives. I can’t go watch corn grow like I can in Rockford.”
Students like Meenan hang out at Millennium Park, go to local eateries to meet friends, visit galleries and see shows around the city. Plus, they can hop on the L to visit nightclubs and hangouts north of downtown. (A frequently mentioned favorite was Clarke’s, a restaurant on Belmont that is open 24 hours.)
Downtown allure
“We have had quite a transformation of our student body since 2003,” said Mark Kelly, vice president of student affairs for Columbia College. “We have moved from a commuter school to a residential campus. In 2003, 15 percent were on campus, and in 2009 it was 70 percent.”
While Columbia has made an effort to increase enrollment, there is more to the housing phenomenon.
†The downtown is no longer deserted at night, and the main streets are well kept, well lit and manicured, giving the appearance of safety. Overall Chicago crime is down this year. Though crime incidents are up in the downtown district, the students interviewed for this article said they knew how to be careful and had had no problems.
†With the 2004 opening of a large, well appointed dorm, University Center, students and parents began to see the city as a place where college students could have all the amenities of a college dorm, plus the excitement of the city outside their door.
†National studies have shown that students who live on or near campus have a higher graduation rate than those who do not. They get better grades and are more likely to become dues-paying members of the college’s alumni association.
†A cycle may have started where better dorms attract more college students, who then need more housing, which then generates more housing and more students. Though you can major in almost anything downtown, between Columbia and the School of the Art Institute, not to mention the Illinois Institute of Art, Loop campuses seem to have attracted a cluster of artistic students.
And for art students like Fran Toan, 19, living in the city has been perfect.
‘It has been really great for me,” Toan said. “I have met a lot of artists that live and work in the city and have been to a lot of galleries. Our focus, as artists, is making art, so you really want to see what’s out there.”
She and her fellow students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago tend to be in class five to seven hours a day, doing studio work. When they want to cut loose, they go to Millennium Park, or take the L to explore the city. She picked SAIC because she wanted an urban experience.
Developers’ opportunity
Students who crave city life may adding a little life to the woebegone land development industry downtown.
Developers who were going to build condos, said Taylor, are in some cases considering changing their plans to dormitories.
“Whether that is truly reflective of the market or just a fallback position for developers who would prefer to be in the condo business, remains to be seen,” he said.
He cautioned however, that though conditions could change, the market for student housing may be nearing saturation. “As schools figure out their enrollment strategies, and the economy takes off,” he added, “there will be additional capacity needed. But our opinion is we are at or close to that.”
Incidentally, for the most part these are not your father’s dormitory rooms.
You will be hard pressed to find communal bathrooms and cinder block walls.
These dorms are more like apartments, with kitchenettes, designer furniture and an urban flair to the decor.
A recent tour of SAIC’s 162 N. State building — a former office building adjoined to the building next door and remodeled into a dormitory — found wood trim and brass furnishings in the lobby, 24-hour security and large, airy dorm rooms with big windows and art easels for desks.
Lounge areas are furnished with furniture custom designed by an alumnus, and laundry rooms are linked to the Internet so students can find out when their clothes are dry. The building also has a top floor addition of a large art studio with filtered light coming in all four sides.
The SAIC has about 750 on-campus residents, said Patrick Spence, assistant dean of student affairs. When they opened their latest dorm on State Street, it was nearly at capacity from year one. “We learned a lot with our first dorm,” Spence said. “What you see here, we feel we got it right.”
While University Center offers cafeteria service, many of the urban dormitories have no food service. Instead they have kitchenettes.
“It gave me a chance to work on my cooking and try different foods,” said SAIC student Dash Corvin-Brittin, an American from Amsterdam. “In my group we ended up cooking a lot for each other. My Indian friend made delicious vegetarian food and I make a killer meatloaf. We would cook once a day. Plus there are plenty of restaurants and fast food.”
‘Too much to do’
One thing that has made the Loop campus more welcoming for college students is the increased retail opportunity.
“There were no businesses catering to students 10 years ago,” said Columbia’s Kelly. “And now on Wabash, whether it’s Pizza Hut or Epic Burger or Cartridge World or Kinko’s, there is so much more activity. If you are down here at 9 p.m. during the academic year, you would see it.”
Probably 3,500 to 4,000 Columbia students live on or in the shadow of the Columbia campus, he said. “We’ve become a 24-hour campus. On a traditional campus, where athletics, fraternities and sororities define life outside the classroom, the cultural life of this campus is the cultural life of the city.
“There is actually too much to do,” he added. “During the school year, the number of events, or films or performances, or artists visiting or gallery openings, jazz showcase and the Art Institute and the theater district — there is more than enough to do and that is very alluring to young creatives.”
It’s good for downtown, too. Ty Tabing, executive director of the Chicago Loop Alliance, is looking forward to an extension of the DePaul report this fall that will detail the economic impact of Loop students.
Meanwhile, he said in an e-mail, “One thing that is evident is the type of retailers coming into the Loop — Charlotte Russe, Urban Outfitters, H&M, Blick Art (with A’gaci coming next month!) — all of which cater to a younger target audience than State Street and the Loop has traditionally had. We welcome the infusion of students, their purchasing power and the energy/dynamism they bring to the area.”
Loop students may not have a quad or a football stadium, but they tend to be adventurous types who treat the entire city as their playground. And when it comes time for graduation, SAIC students hold the ceremony — where else? — Millennium Park.
