Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) got the nod to design a new forum for the University of Chicago, reports ArchDaily.
The David M. Rubenstein Forum is a “new facility for convening and collaboration,” according to a statement by the University of Chicago. The venue will host lectures, workshops, conferences, ceremonies and other events. It is scheduled to open in 2018, and it will be a place that is both serious and casual.
“The new building will combine a variety of spaces, both formal and informal, large and small, calm and animated, focused and diffuse, scheduled and spontaneous,” DS+R founding partner Elizabeth Diller said in the statement. “The Forum's unique position on the Midway will allow for expansive views toward the campus and surrounding communities as well as downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan.”
Diller Scofidio + Renfro was selected in part because the firm has experience designing these types of buildings, ones that “merge art and architecture,” according to the statement.
DS+R is currently working on projects like New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Los Angeles’s The Broad museum of contemporary art.