Bronzeville Innovation Center

This office of the future maximizes efficiency by providing employees more in-person work options, resulting in reduced workstations and instead having a “playground” of better suited spaces and settings. The resulting buildings will reduce barriers to innovation and increase productivity.

This commercial life sciences building, anchored by Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, will be the centerpiece of the first phase of the 100-acre, $3.8B Bronzeville Lakefront Project. Once complete, the revitalized area will include seven million square feet of commercial and institutional space, as well as mixed-income housing.

The Innovation Center will house wet labs for academic institutions, biotech firms, healthcare firms and entrepreneurs. In addition to lab space, this phase includes retail, a community center, mixed-income seniors housing, a new park and the reuse of the existing Singer Pavilion.

The hub will focus on enabling health and wellness in every aspect of life. The design will be collaboratively envisioned with the community to encompass healthy elements such as novel use of open spaces, community learning centers and incorporating technology to improve quality of life.

To accommodate the widest range of life science startups possible, the building is being planned around the concept of lab service intensity levels “bandwidths” or zones. This organizational strategy ensures that each prospective research team has convenient access to the right infrastructure. The lab zones – office, low intensity, medium intensity and high intensity – define not only the “kit of parts,” but also add discipline for space use, rates and charges. 

A future $3 billion second phase will add medical research facilities, mixed-income residential units, retail, offices and open green space. In total, the project will revitalize two miles along the waterfront. A local developer team comprised of six entities is behind the project.

Initially about 235,000 sf will be finished, with an addition 36,000 sf unfished. The R&D area covers approximately 50,000-sf of labs with 37,000-sf of support space.