One of the larger academic institutions in downtown Chicago is getting a little bigger. The Moody Bible Institute is shining up its shovels to break ground late next week on a new media center on its Near North campus.
Rendering of the Moody Bible Institute’s Chapman Center
It’s not a “new media” center, it’s a “new” media center, and will house the organization’s radio and publishing empire, as well as internet, digital, and multimedia offices. For those of you unfamiliar with Moody, it has extensive publishing operations, and beams programming to hundreds of radio stations nationwide. Locally, it owns 90.1 FM and 1100 AM. If you have an HD radio, the 90.1 signal puts out some of the best Christmas music programming available in the Chicago market.
The $24 million building, described as a “global media center” will be called The Chapman Center, named for author and Moody alum Gary Chapman. With 50,000 square feet of space, it will help Moody students learn about both traditional, and 21st-century media, and how the two can leverage one another.
The design of the building, unfortunately, flies under the radar, like much of the rest of the Moody campus. Orange brick and white concrete with lots of right angles and little glass.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for Friday, November 18.
Rendering of the Moody Bible Institute’s Chapman Center
Location: 935 North Wells Street, Near North
Editor founded the Chicago Architecture Blog in 2003, after a long career in journalism. He can be reached at chicagoarchitectureinfo@gmail.com.
