MOVING UP… downtown
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The confetti flew on Pearson Street in September as Loyola opened the doors to the new high-rise residence hall on the Water Tower Campus. The 627-bed Baumhart Hall will support the campus’s growing enrollment in law, business, social work, and education.
The building’s name honors longtime former Loyola President Raymond C. Baumhart, S.J., one of the visionaries of the downtown campus.
“It’s a fitting tribute to Father Baumhart because the Water Tower Campus experienced a large share of its growth under his leadership,” explains Wayne Magdziarz, vice president and chief of staff.
Largest WTC naming gift ever
The hall’s three-story Terry Student Center offers the most extensive student gathering space in campus history. The student center was made possible through a $5 million gift—the largest naming gift ever at WTC—from John and Terese Terry, both of the Class of 1959. Open to the entire University, the center features a food court, a coffee bar, a student lounge with flat-screen televisions and ping-pong and pool tables, wireless Internet connection, the campus chapel, the campus bookstore, and a newly renovated Flapjaws Café.
“The student center gives the Water Tower Campus a feeling of community.”
DONOR JOHN TERRY
The Terrys, who met while attending classes downtown, are strong supporters of the new residence hall and student center.
“You need housing to support the growth of the downtown campus. And the student center helps give it a feeling of community,” says John Terry, an investor in the trucking industry and a former senior operating and financial executive with several companies, including National City Lines, PepsiCo Inc., IU International, and the U.S. government corporation that formed Conrail. “Our motivation for giving to Loyola is quite straightforward; we want others to have the same great college experience and educational background that we did.”
Terese Terry, a business information specialist at the Lippincott Library, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a Loyola trustee, adds, “We like to think that the Terry Center will also serve to honor the memory of our deceased children, Rosalind and Gregory.” The Terrys are the parents of two other children, Michael and Deirdre.
“It’s now convenient for our students to live, attend classes, and work in a great location in Chicago’s premier downtown neighborhood.”
PRESIDENT MICHAEL J. GARANZINI, S.J.
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| Alumni donors Terese (left) and John (right, partially obscured) Terry join President Michael J. Garanzini, S.J. (second from left), and former President Raymond Baumhart, S.J., at the Baumhart Hall dedication. |
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| Settling in: Chris Heredia (top, from left), Eddie Milas, and Pritesh Patel show off their new suite; Residence Life staffers help student Emily Ryan unpack. |
President Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., comments, “It’s now convenient for our students to live, attend classes, and work in a great location in Chicago’s premier downtown neighborhood. This building is critical to our mission as a Jesuit, Catholic, urban university connected to the life of the City of Chicago. We are extremely grateful to John and Terese for helping us do this.”
Thumbs up from students
Students who moved into Baumhart Hall this fall appreciate the building’s many conveniences, such as a state-of-the-art fitness center and a computer-networked laundry room that allows users to monitor their laundry via the Web. Each two-bedroom suite comes with a kitchen that includes a full-sized refrigerator, stove, microwave, dishwasher, sink, and garbage disposal.
Students also love the brevity of their commute: they walk out the front door and cross Pearson Street to attend classes.
“It’s nicer than any dorm I’ve lived in, and a lot more convenient than taking the shuttle from Lake Shore,” says sophomore Adam Bills, a criminal justice major.
Baumhart, who served as Loyola’s president from 1970-94, says he’s honored by the decision to name the hall after him.
“I’m very pleased by and grateful for this surprising development; I interpret it to mean that the trustees and Father Garanzini believe I did a good job as a Loyola teacher and administrator. That’s very reassuring,” Baumhart says.
Complementing the 2005 debut of the Loyola University Museum of Art and high-profile retail in Lewis Towers, the Terry Student Center and Baumhart Hall are the first phase of the Water Tower Campus plan to be completed. When finished in late 2008, The Clare at Water Tower, a senior residential community to be located at 55 E. Pearson St., will be the second. Loyola’s portion of The Clare (approximately 35,000 square feet) will house a student services center, a dozen cutting-edge classrooms, and an active media laboratory.
The campus’s third and fourth phases, still in the concept stage, will occur along State Street between Pearson and Chestnut. Plans for that site include an executive conference center, new retail, parking, a fitness center, and the potential for additional student residential units.
JOHN T. SLANIA (BA ’79)