New Parking Structure
61st & Drexel

Overview

The plot of land at 61st Street and Drexel Avenue that until recently was used as a 200-space surface parking lot for hospital employees will be home to a new 1,000-space employee parking garage and a 60,000-square-foot office building. Construction began summer 2005 and is projected to be completed by the end of 2006.

The new parking garage for hospital employees is intended to relieve congestion and to free up spaces in the Maryland Avenue garage for patients and visitors.

The first floor — 8,100 square feet — of the office building is set to be occupied by the University of Chicago Police Department. Facilities will include a 24-hour/7-day communications center, parking for 25 cars and/or vans, and a rapid emergency exit. Curbside parking around the structure will be reserved for police vehicles.

The second, third, and fourth floors of the structure will be occupied by outpatient clinics served by the hospitals' Department of Psychiatry. The clinics' staff — social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists — handle 40,000 outpatient visits per year, with 50% of patients coming from the local community, predominantly African-American using Medicaid/Medicare to pay for services.

For more information and drawings of the new parking structure, see the presentation at the community meeting of July 14, 2005 (PDF, 3.25 MB).

Timeline

• First community meeting: July 14, 2005
• Next meeting: To be determined

Minutes & Materials

• Hospital employee garage to be built on 61st St. (Hyde Park Herald, 7/20/05)
   
• From the 7/14/05 community meeting:
      Flier (76 KB)
      Agenda (15 KB)
      Presentation (3.25 MB)
      FAQs (13 KB)

Contact

• Terry Molnar, terry.molnar@uchospitals.edu
  Executive Director of Planning, Design & Construction
  University of Chicago Hospitals