New Malcolm X Campus Construction Underway
Construction of a new Malcolm X College and School of Health Sciences got underway with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and City Colleges Chancellor Cheryl Hyman breaking ground October 2, on the site located adjacent to the Illinois Medical District and across the street from the old college building at Jackson Boulevard and Damen Avenue in Chicago.
“Today we lay the foundation for a best-in-class learning environment that will be the pride of the West Side and all of Chicago,” City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Cheryl Hyman said. “The new Malcolm X College will be a centerpiece of our efforts to ensure Chicagoans are prepared for careers in growing fields like healthcare.”
Designed with input from healthcare industry partners, the new facility will serve as the hub of the College to Careers healthcare programs to prepare students for the 84,000 healthcare jobs expected to come to the region over the next decade.
“Here in Chicago, we are revolutionizing the educational model by linking highly-specialized, technical curriculums with the needs of our local employers --essentially creating a direct bridge between students and jobs of the 21st century economy,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.
Part of City Colleges of Chicago’s five-year $524 million capital plan, which will invest across the seven-college system, the new 500,000 square-foot campus, slated for completion in late 2015, will host students beginning in Jan. 2016 and will have the capacity to accommodate approximately 20,000 students--6,000 more than currently-- and will also include space for health science, general and adult education programs, a virtual hospital, skill and simulations labs, sports science and occupational programs, state-of-the-art technology, more than 25,000 square-feet of student study and activity space and a new conference facility with capacity for 1,300.
Moody Nolan, who owns the nation’s largest African-American architectural firm, serves as the project’s Architect of Record. Through this project, the firm is expanding its two-year-old Chicago office from nine to 14 staff members.
According to information provided by City Colleges, of the approximately 950 jobs being created through the project, the vast majority will go to Chicagoans and up to 120 are to qualified applicants residing in communities surrounding the college.
To prepare local residents without prior training, City Colleges has free, pre-apprentice construction training offered at Kennedy-King College’s Dawson Technical Institute (DTI).
Nearly 30 people have completed the DTI training program to date; 22 are now working to prepare the site for construction. About 30 local residents are currently in the training program.
To ensure minority and female participation in the project, City Colleges partnered with the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA) and the Chicago Urban League to hold hiring events and recruit applicants.
Mayor Emanuel and Chancellor Cheryl Hyman announced the new campus project in February 2012, along with City Colleges’ five-year capital plan which allows for major improvements throughout the seven-campus community college system, from upgraded classroom technologies to brand-new teaching and learning facilities, as well as a new Transportation, Distribution and Logistics (TDL) Center at Olive-Harvey College.
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