CHICAGO-Just a year after reinstating its athletic program after a two-decade hiatus, Roosevelt University is moving forward on plans to build a field house for its athletics programs at a current parking lot at the corner of Congress Parkway and Wabash Avenue in the South Loop. The two-story Lillian and Larry Goodman Center will total 27,834 square feet.

The building will cost about $5 million. Larry Goodman, founder of the Community Discount Store chain and the current Skokie-based American Asset Management Services, donated $3 million of the cost. Goodman, a former airplane navigator in World War II, is known for the charity he formed with his late wife, Lillian, the Lillian and Larry Goodman Foundation.

The new center is expected to open for the beginning of the 2012-13 academic year. It will contain a multi-purpose gymnasium on the second floor which will be used for numerous Roosevelt activities in addition to being the practice and competition home for the Roosevelt Lakers men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball teams.

Retractable bleachers can be rolled out at the gym to provide seating for approximately 500 people. When not being used in this capacity, the gym space can be segmented and utilized for programming space for varying intramural and recreational activities.

On the first floor of the new building, there will be administrative offices for athletic department staff, a varsity athletics strength and conditioning center, athletic training room, team meeting rooms, student lounge and locker rooms.

Solomon Cordwell Buenz is the architect of the field house. Power Construction is the contractor.

Roosevelt is one of the few entities building downtown. Construction is nearly complete on a $118 million, 32-story addition that will provide additional dorm rooms, offices, science labs and classrooms for the college. The tower is going up at 425 S. Wabash. The college has roughly 7,500 students.

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Roosevelt U. Will Add Field House on Wabash

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