"We were particularly happy to get this property, given thevalue of property in the South Loop," a spokeswoman for the schooltells GlobeSt.com. "We thought we may have had to build somethingfurther away from our central campus, but this property emerged. Wegot a very nice price from the city of Chicago."

The spokeswoman says the vacant lot is within about a mile ofthe college's central campus, at 600 S. Michigan Ave. The 38,000-sfMedia Production Center, to be known as the MPC, will be designedby Studio Gang Architects. It will include two sound stages, amotion capture studio, animation lab, classrooms and space forproduction design and costumes. The building is planned to featurea transparent facade, and is being designed to obtain silver LEEDcertification.

The college provides more than 120 undergraduate and graduatedegree programs in visual, performing, media and communication artsto nearly 12,500 students. "We need to build this facility in orderto expand our capacity for education for the media students," thespokeswoman says. "We were able to demonstrate that it would beused for educational purposes and compliment the neighborhood."