University of Chicago Press Building
Home to the largest university press in the United States, the University of Chicago Press Building appropriately houses what Jacques Derrida has called “a kind of luminous and indispensable reference.”
Technical Performance
Along with the new Chicago Theological Seminary building, the University of Chicago Press Building has stood as the campus’ southeast anchor for over a decade. A limestone echo of International House just across the Midway, the building’s utilitarian façade is broken up only by groupings of picture windows and a recessed entranceway. The mock porticoes that flank the entranceway provide not only structural support, but their windows also represent the intellectual freedom the Press has built its legacy upon.
Institutional Success
Built in 2000 to address the increasing spatial needs of the press, the building at 60th and Dorchester now houses all elements of the University Press, including the Books Division, Journals Division, and Chicago Distribution Center. The University of Chicago Press also became the first University press to feature an onsite digital printing facility with the 2001 introduction of the Chicago Digital Distribution Center and its involvement in BiblioVault. With more than fifty thousand active ISBN’s to their name, the Press shows no signs of slowing down in its new space.