The massive, futuristic-looking building at 5617 S. Maryland Ave. stands three stories tall and clocks in at 64,725 square feet, including a sleek, glass “skin” that encases all the building’s color-coded steam and chilling functions and machinery. 

As I walked through the plant’s glass doors for a building tour organized by the Office of Sustainability and Facilities Services, I quickly realized I had no idea that all that machinery, along with two other campus plants, operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to heat and cool the entirety of UChicago’s campus facilities.

Completed in 2010 and designed by the late architect Helmut Jahn (Mansueto Library and the James R. Thompson Center of downtown Chicago are just a couple of his famous designs), the WCCUP houses two 225,000 pounds per hour steam boilers and two 2,500-ton chillers, with cooling towers on the. The chilled water produced there helps air condition west and central campus buildings, while the steam provides heating and hot water for the entire campus, including the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Both the steam and chilled water are distributed throughout campus via an extensive tunnel system that includes numerous branch tunnels, crawl tunnels, and vaults; plus, a mile-long, 7-foot-high walkable section built in 1929 that begins at the South Steam Plant at 61st and Blackstone Avenue and ends near Levi Hall.  Don’t worry—entrances to the tunnel were secured with locks long ago, following stories of students sneaking inside. In total, 11 miles of steam piping and 9.5 miles of chilled water piping serve campus and heating and cooling needs.

As a person who doesn’t always think about the processes behind why we have air conditioning or heat in our office, I decided to take the Office of Sustainability up on its offer to the campus community in April in honor of Earth Month of a free tour of the facility—even if only for its great view overlooking Stagg Field, where I used to spend most of my working days as the Director of Athletic Communications. I, along with several others, braved the sleet to get to the plant that day, beginning the tour in the building’s basement tunnels. Led by Brandon Stone, Engineer Foreman for the plant, and Rick Almanza, Lead Plant Operator, we followed the snaking of blue (chilled water) and red (steam) pipes that deliver critical cooling and heating to the campus.

UChicago needs its own heating and cooling systems because simply, it’s big. The campus covers 217 acres, averages 338 million kilowatt-hours per year (that’s the same as a total of 30,700 U.S. homes) and uses 257 million gallons of water annually to run its 197 buildings, including laboratories, medical systems, residence halls, offices, and more.  The Central Utility Plants, operated by University Facilities, employ 22 full-time employees, including managers, foremen, engineers, and mechanics.

Next, we headed up to the room that houses two green centrifugal chillers, and a brine silo and water softener (for softening the water so it doesn’t damage the boilers and pipes). We then went up a floor to see two large boilers, which are powered by natural gas and the central control room, where staff control and monitor the mostly self-sustaining machine-run operation via computers and other controls and gauges. Finally, it was to the roof, where the cooling towers emit heat removed from campus buildings and enjoyed a lovely view that overlooks Stagg Field and, in the distance, downtown Chicago.

The WCCUP, as noted above, is just one part of the University’s central utility system ecosystem, which also includes the South Campus Chiller Plant, or SCCP (also designed with a glass skin by Jahn and completed in 2009), at Blackstone Avenue and 61st Street and the Gothic-style South Steam Plant (built in 1929), located next door. The SCCP houses three chillers that service the buildings on the south and east sides of campus, while the South Steam Plant complements the newer WCCUP with its four 150,000-pounds per hour boilers.

Back to Earth Month: it’s important to note UChicago has consistently invested in improving the operating efficiency of its three central utility plants, such as the thermal insulation of steam piping that included the installation of 2,963 thermal jackets and 4,200 feet of pipe insulation in over 75 buildings in a seven-month project that wrapped up in October 2020. It also has plans to do more, which is outlined in the recently released greenhouse gas emissions plan—to continue to reduce the University’s carbon footprint and reach its goal of reducing campus-wide emissions by 50% by 2030. In addition to continual fine-tuning of chilled water inefficiencies, the University is also planning to pilot a new technology known for their energy performance—heat recovery chillers—in the Regenstein Library and the William Eckhardt Research Center.  You can learn more about these processes on pages 41 and 42 of the plan.

Not to be missed on the tour was a look at the plant’s main generator—which Stone kindly flipped on for a moment—that can power the plant, should it need to be self-reliant in the event of a ComEd or People’s Gas outage.

At the tour’s end, I walked out of the WCCUP both a little wiser on what it takes to operate a campus the size of UChicago, and more appreciative of the work our facilities team does every day to make sure our staff, academics, and students can continue to make new discoveries, develop new technologies, care for patients, teach, learn, and make further impact on our world.

More History

UChicago’s original steam power plant was built in 1901, replacing separate plants in the basements of various buildings. With no donor likely to come forward to help pay for the construction, University founder John D. Rockefeller sent his own engineer to build it and paid for it out of his own pocket. The coal-operated plant eventually became inefficient and with the expansion of the University south of the Midway, the 97,888 square-foot South Steam Power Plant was completed in 1929, designed by Philip B. Maher. Its location at 6053 S. Blackstone Ave. was chosen due to its proximity to the Illinois Central Railroad tracks, due to the high cost of hauling coal. The plant, originally coal-fired, was converted to natural gas from 1968–72.

Nicole Watkins is Assistant Director of Internal Communications & Content with University Communications, where she has worked since January 2020. Prior to that, she spent 12 years working in the sports media field, joining the University in 2017 as the Director of Athletic Communications. Fun fact: she has a bachelor’s degree in fine art—with an emphasis in photography—from Western Michigan University, where she also played Division I college basketball.

—Adapted from an article first published on the UChicago Intranet