Two
THE NEW MUNDELEIN
The renovated Munde- lein Center for the Fine and Performing Arts offers state-of-the-art spaces and equipment for Loyola students, from dance studios to music practice rooms to the Newhart Family Theatre.
enormous stone angels flank the main entrance to the Mundelein Center. They’re hard to miss. As generations of students have been keen to recite: one, Uriel, holds the book of wisdom; the other, Jophiel, holds the torch of knowledge and a globe anchored by a cross. They are fitting sentinels of the space they guard. Within the building’s walls, thousands of students have ex- perimented, discovered, learned, and changed. Once the home of Mundelein College, a private, Roman Catholic women’s college, the building is now the Mundelein Center for the Fine and Performing Arts. Construction of the Mundelein Center, then known as
the Skyscraper Building, began in 1929 as the stock mar- ket was crashing and the Roaring Twenties were coming to a close. Built in just 11 months for under $2 million, the building was dedicated in 1931. According to Sr. Ann Ida Gannon, BVM, a former president of the college, the building was familiarly called “Skyscraper” not because of its height (although it was the tallest in the area for several years after its construction), but because of the steel framework and structure that characterize urban skyscrapers. The architecture showcases many attributes of the popular Art Deco style, including strong vertical lines and geometric shapes. For many years, the building served as a self-con-
tained university for the women of Mundelein College. It housed living spaces, a cafeteria, a gymnasium, a pool, a library, a chapel, an auditorium, and classroom and administrative space. In 1991, the building and college became incorporated into Loyola. The building has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980, and it has been an official Chicago landmark since 2007. Loyola began renovating the building in late 2004, and, in fall of 2012, it was rededicated as the Mundelein Center for the Fine and Performing Arts.
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LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
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