Northwestern University Lakefill
Encyclopedia
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
Lakefill is an area of land that was reclaimed from Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
in 1964-1969 from landfill materials made available by the construction of the Port of Indiana
Port of Indiana
The Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor is an industrial area, founded in 1965 and located on the Lake Michigan shore of Indiana at the intersection of U.S. Highway 12 and Indiana 249. The primary work done in the area is the manufacturing of steel, and the port area is dominated by steel mills...
. The Lakefill resulted from the university's need to expand the campus's physical footprint; Northwestern President J. Roscoe Miller
J. Roscoe Miller
James Roscoe Miller was the twelfth president of Northwestern University, serving between 1949 and 1970.During his tenure, Northwestern substantially increased the size of its Evanston campus, constructing many new buildings on adjacent land reclaimed by filling in Lake Michigan...
received permission from the town of Evanston
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
and the Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
legislature (as well as numerous other groups) to reclaim 74 acres (30 ha) of underwater land.
As solid ground was established, Northwestern began the construction of the Northwestern University Library
Northwestern University Library
The Northwestern University Library is the principal library for the Evanston campus of Northwestern University. The library holds 4.6 million volumes, making it the 11th largest library at a private university. The building was designed in brutalist style by Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings and...
, the Norris University Center
Norris University Center
The Norris University Center is the student union of Northwestern University.-Naming:The building is named for Lester J. Norris, an alumnus of Northwestern University who died in 1967...
and the Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, all built from 1970-1975.
In recent years, the lakefill has grown to include the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion and Norris Aquatics Center, also known as SPAC (for Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center). Numerous paths intersect through the lakefill, providing an ideal route for walkers and joggers. Certain points along the lakefill shore allow for a clear view of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.