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Navy Pier to Here | 2005 UIC City & Corporate Award Recipient Profiles

FEATURE STORY (continued) — January/February 2005


2005 Award Recipient Profiles

City Partner Kenneth Schroeder '61 Navy Pier, '67 FAA UIUC Principal, Schroeder Murchie Laya Associates, Ltd., Chicago, IL

Urban Renovator
Kenneth Schroeder's influence as an architect can be seen throughout Chicago and urban America

By Hugh M. Cook

If you read an architecture magazine, you'll discover that architects, engineers and developers never have problems, they have challenges. Therefore, we should say that architect Kenneth Schroeder '61 Navy Pier, '67 UIUC and his partners faced a challenge.

To provide some perspective, we must remember that their particular challenge happened three decades ago. Why? Because Schroeder's solution has become so commonplace, it no longer seems that novel or difficult to implement.

The circumstances: In 1975, Schroeder and his partners acquire a dilapidated former factory building in Chicago's Printers Row area and decide to renovate it into loft apartments. To achieve this, they must overcome a series of financial, construction and legal hurdles. The result: They not only achieve their goal, but demonstrate how other Chicago neighborhoods filled with vacated warehouses and factory buildings can rebuild and find new life.

"Those early projects helped set the basis for the loft movement," says Schroeder, principal, Schroeder Murchie Laya Associates, Ltd., a Chicago-based architectural firm. "I'm kind of the father of the loft movement. It's something that I'm proud of and continue to work toward."

Schroeder's success as an architect is reflected in several notable projects, including Burnham Park Plaza in the South Loop and Cobbler Square. The latter involved renovating the historic Dr. Scholl's shoe factory and headquarters into 297 loft apartments and 22,000 square feet of retail space. Many credit the project with sparking the revival of Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.

Over the years, he has also lent his talents to creating affordable housing in Chicago. In partnership with the CityLands Corporation, Shaw Homes, Bank of America Illinois and the South Austin Coalition Community Council, his firm designed 40 single-family, two-story homes for the South Austin Community. Such housing, he says, plants the seeds for further community redevelopment.

Currently, Schroeder's firm is focusing on institutional projects, such as elementary schools, parks and libraries.

Schroeder has brought the many lessons he's learned from practicing architecture into the classroom. In 1971, he joined UIC's faculty as an adjunct professor in the School of Architecture, and eventually became its director of graduate and undergraduate programs. From 1994-96, he served as the School's director. Currently, he is professor emeritus and a member of the advisory board.

As an instructor, Schroeder has always used the city as an extension of his classroom. He believes that UIC's urban setting helps students better understand the context in which buildings are designed and gives them the opportunity to work with "real clients and professionals from other disciplines and fields."

To further enhance the learning experience of students, Schroeder established the UIC Kenneth Schroeder Versailles Scholarship Fund, which allows a UIC student to study abroad in Versailles, France.

Among his accomplishments as an architect and instructor, Schroeder is particularly proud of the relationships he's forged with many of his former students. "A number of them have no qualms about calling me and asking for advice. I think, as a professor, you hope that you're a professor forever. And I feel that way with many of my students."