Chicago's Near West Side is home to a historically significant neighborhood popularly known as the Maxwell Street District. Considered the city's "new old neighborhood," the 68-acre area has been home to gas stations, auto repair shops, junk yards, a coal company, and waste material facilities. Now, this once-vital urban area is being cleaned up to make way for the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) South Campus development project—a 10-year, multimillion dollar brownfield redevelopment effort that will not only expand the university's facilities and provide additional student housing, but will also improve the area's overall livability through the addition of a performing arts center, retail shops, and private housing.
To make way for this growth and revitalization, CDM closely collaborated with the development team to manage remediation activities to effectively secure a "no further remediation" letter from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. CDM conducted comprehensive site assessments and investigations, developed site-specific remediation objectives, prepared remediation action plans, and oversaw the completion of remedial activities.
The South Campus project is contributing to the area's socioeconomic growth by having the potential to provide more than 1,000 jobs and more than $1 billion in economic activity. In addition, the project will ease the city's residential space burden, based on the return of many suburban residents to the urban core, by making available an estimated 900 new or renovated condominiums, town homes, and lofts. And, although residents will benefit from a selection of new cultural, retail, and recreational amenities, the project respects the historical significance of the area through important restoration of at least eight existing turn-of-the century structures, including the Maxwell Street Station, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.