The Keller Center | The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy

For more than 30 years, the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy has been a driving force for rigorous thinking and evidence-based approaches to address our world’s most important problems.

The Keller Center, Harris's home, offers a world-class destination on Chicago's South Side. Students, scholars, policymakers, and civic leaders can learn, work, and collaborate in confronting the challenges facing our city and the world.

We invite you to join Harris Public Policy at the Keller Center, and help us make an impact for the next generation.

The Keller Center is setting the standard for sustainable design on UChicago campus and among policy schools around the globe, reflecting Harris’ commitment to policy impact and civic engagement while accommodating the School's substantial growth.

Download the Keller Center's sustainability brochure (6 MB)

Restoring and reimagining the four-story, 20th-century masterpiece designed by Edward Durell Stone, the Keller Center incorporates several world-class sustainable design practices:

Ethical Redevelopment & Reclaimed Materials

The Keller Center Forum, a beautiful four-level atrium, photographed from the northern entrance. — Harris Family Foundation King Harris Forum - Photo by Tom Rossiter

The focal point of the Keller Center is the Harris Family Foundation King Harris Forum, a sun-soaked, four-level atrium that reaches the full height of the building.

Clad in beautiful, locally-sourced ash wood, the Forum represents a key policy story of Harris Public Policy at the Keller Center.

The ash trees in the Forum come from trees in Chicago’s south and west side parks. The trees, infested by the emerald ash borer beetle, were a hazard and as a result had to be felled. Artist and leader in ethical redevelopment Theaster Gates, Senior Adviser for Cultural Innovation and Adviser to the Dean of Harris, reclaimed the wood for use in art and building fabrication projects. Through his Dorchester Industries Mill on the South Side of Chicago, local residents milled the wood, which appears in the Forum and throughout the Keller Center.

The Keller Center uses other reclaimed materials throughout the building, including toilet stall doors and light fixtures from the original structure.

Rainwater Capture

The Keller Center's design incorporates rainwater capture, which reuses available resources to work key infrastructure in the building, and also mitigates impact on Chicago's stormwater systems.

The rainwater cistern captures rainwater and uses it to flush the building’s toilets, diverting rainwater from Chicago’s overburdened sewer system. It also provides more usable space for the rooftop solar panels.

The rainwater cistern tank holds 15,000 gallons of water and diverts 525,208 gallons annually from the Chicago's sewer system. That's enough water to completely fill the four-story volume of the Keller Center’s atrium.

Solar Energy Capture

The Keller Center’s solar energy system produces up to 152,055 kWh of carbon-free electricity each year. This is enough energy to power 11% of the building’s annual energy use, or about 15 average homes annually.

Active Design & Universal Design

The Keller Center’s monumental stair connects all levels of the building. This strategy is essential to Active Design Guidelines, which create opportunities for daily physical activity.

In addition, the Keller Center incorporates Universal Design principles throughout, which work to enable and empower diverse populations by creating access for people with diverse abilities.

Bird-friendly Glass

All new windows on the perimeter of the Keller Center incorporate a special UV reflective coating that makes the building more bird-friendly. The coating incorporates a spiderweb design that birds innately avoid, reducing collisions with the windows. This is an example of biomimicry—the emulation of nature’s patterns and systems—in green building design.

Architect

Harris Public Policy assembled a team of world-class designers to oversee the transformation of the Stone building. Chicago-based Farr Associates, the architect of record, worked with a team of consultants to devise architectural and interior design plans for the Keller Center. Farr Associates is recognized nationally for their emphasis on sustainability and collaborative approach to design.

The Keller Center brings together students, scholars, and civic leaders from around the world—fostering collaboration and communication, catalyzing idea exchange, facilitating innovative policy research, and empowering policy ideas that address real needs, in Chicago and around the world.

University Trustee Dennis J. Keller, MBA’68, co-founder and retired chairman and CEO of DeVry Education Group, committed $20 million to Harris Public Policy, the second-largest gift in the school’s history. University Trustee King Harris, chairman of Harris Holdings, Inc. and board chair of AptarGroup, Inc., and his family, provided $12.5 million, adding to their longstanding support of Harris Public Policy.

Named in recognition of the generous support of Dennis J. and Connie Keller, our home at The Keller Center showcases Harris Public Policy's enduring commitment to intellectual openness, inclusiveness and bold innovation. The Keller Center will also serve as one of the University of Chicago’s anchors on the south side of campus, connecting us to the neighboring communities.

In addition to these two leading donors, many other generous supporters have helped make this building possible. We are grateful for their support and look forward to honoring them in our new space.

Welcome to the Keller Center, a pinnacle of sustainable design at the University of Chicago. This transformative hub has earned international recognition for its excellence and innovation, exemplified by its LEED-NC Platinum and Living Building Challenge™ Petal certifications. Celebrated for integrating policy-inspired solutions and promoting inclusivity through design, the Keller Center sets a new standard in higher education and architectural sustainability.

2020 COTE® Top Ten

American Institute of Architects (AIA)

The prestigious COTE® Top Ten is the architecture industry’s best-known award program for sustainable design excellence.

Distinguished Building Award — Honor Award

American Institute of Architects Chicago (AIA Chicago)

The Keller Center's transformational design integrates policy-inspired solutions to better connect with the community, place policy on display and serve as an exemplar in sustainable design.

Interior Architecture Award — Honor Award

American Institute of Architects Chicago (AIA Chicago)

The universal design creates an inclusive environment at all spaces with custom designed millwork and furniture elements. Natural materials of steel, copper, stone and wood are celebrated throughout providing warmth to the white-washed concrete structure.

Small Project Award, Object — Citation of Merit (Monumental Stair)

American Institute of Architects Chicago (AIA Chicago)

A monumental stair promotes active design guidelines and extends the warmth of the forum up through the atrium.

2020 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award for Adaptive Use

Landmarks Illinois

The annual awards program, now in its 27^th year, honors exceptional historic preservation projects and the people saving important places in Illinois.

Vision Award: Excellence in Environmentally Sensitive Design and Community Engagemen

Urban Land Institute

"The Keller Center is a deserving recipient of the ULI Vision Award for its revitalizing transformation of a historic building
into a vibrant center for learning and engagement. The harmonization of history, technology, and sustainability yields a
committed resistance to climate change and environmental degradation."

- Urban Land Institute

Building Renovation – Civic Winner

The Architect's Newspaper (AN)2019 Best of Design Awards

"This resurgence in architects doing interiors, both residential and commercial, seems to mirror what we see in the field: Simpler, less colorful interiors that put more emphasis on materiality than on playful shapes, as in the past."

- The Architect's Newspaper

2019 Reconstruction Award – Silver Award

Building Design + Construction (BD+C)

"Extreme sustainability was the chief goal for the reconstruction of Edward Durrell Stone’s Kellogg Center for Continuing Education at the University of Chicago."

- Building Design + Construction