Charles M. Harper Center

Supporting a large span of glass to create a Gothic-style atrium

The Charles M. Harper Center is a 415,000-square-foot, five-story graduate academic facility located on the University’s main Hyde Park campus. The building is composed of a base building with five above-grade levels and two below-grade levels, and a glass-enclosed winter garden.

We provided structural design services to Rafael Viñoly Architects for the project that features 12 classrooms, 31 group-study rooms, faculty offices, computer laboratories, multipurpose rooms and an underground parking garage for 170 cars.

Highlights

• The architectural design, marked by the building’s horizontal massing and cantilevered exterior walls, reference Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie style of the neighboring Robie House.
• The resulting cantilevers range from three feet to 42 feet and required more than 600 moment connections.
• A signature architectural element is the 10,000-square-foot winter garden that is framed with structural steel and clad entirely with glass.
• The atrium soars 83 feet at its apex, with the roof supported by four main columns.