HOUSING

Both Professor Hall and I, on the basis of experience with two previous Summer Institutes, strongly encourage participants to reside in a University apartment building at 5700 South Stony Island Avenue (which overlooks Lake Michigan) where space has been reserved for participants. This building is exceptionally comfortable; it reinforces the collective spirit among participants; and it has many practical advantages (see fuller description in next paragraph).  Participants are free to secure their own housing while attending the Seminar, but those who choose to do so are responsible for making their own arrangements.  Private apartments are available, but they vary dramatically in condition, comfort, furnishings, convenience of location, and dates of availability.  Those who rent them will inevitably find themselves, when the Institute begins, somewhat cut off from other participants, and probably in a location less convenient than 5700 Stony Island.

The 5700 Stony Island building consists of furnished two-bedroom apartments. Each apartment has its own kitchen, dining area, large living room, outdoor balcony, and two baths, one for each bedroom; two participants will share a suite, so each participant will have a private bedroom and his/her own bath. The building is quite new (built in 1988) and is maintained in excellent condition. It has a lounge on the ground floor with a 25-inch color television, where residents can gather, a laundry room, secure mailboxes, off-street parking that has in previous years been free to participants, and a secure bicycle storage area. The building is centrally air-conditioned--always welcome in the sometimes hot and muggy summer weather of Chicago. It is reasonably priced (the six weeks will run around $1200 per person) and includes maid service three times weekly, with change of bed linen and towels.  It is located a pleasant and safe ten-minute walk from the central campus, along tree-lined 57th Street, which includes numerous shops, including some good bookstores and several cafes and restaurants where participants may wish to eat when not cooking for themselves. It is a three-block walk from the Hyde Park Shopping Center, home of the neighborhood's largest supermarket (it is large!), and a number of other stores including a large drugstore, etc. It is across the street from a stop for the express city bus to downtown Chicago, and adjacent a train station for commuter trains, so getting to and from downtown is very easy and inexpensive. It is across the street from the Museum of Science and Industry and a section of the lakeshore park system, with its network of bike trails extending 25 miles along the shore of Lake Michigan; the 57th Street swimming beach, the Promontory Point, a Japanese teahouse garden, and a bird sanctuary are only ten minutes on foot away. (Yes, the water is very clean and warm enough in summer for swimming, particularly after mid-July!)  Public tennis courts and a golf course and driving range are within walking distance.  All things considered, the 5700 Stony Island building is hard to beat for convenience and comfort, and participants in previous Institutes have been overwhelmingly positive about the space and the opportunities for constructive social and intellectual interaction it allows.

 

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