Overview

The College of Architecture’s culture and curriculum spring from an embrace of “making” as the center of design education. Nowhere is that more evident than in our Fabrication Center, a remarkable 14,000 square-foot, 3-story building laboratory housed in the first building completed by Mies in America. The Fabrication Center can support everything from fine-grain woodworking to the construction of full-scale building sections (which can be carried outside via two multi-ton gantry cranes). A staff of 3 oversees operations and teach regular classes in materials research, design, and construction.

Capabilities

The College of Architecture has one of the finest fabrication centers anywhere. Located in the first building completed by Mies on the Illinois Institute of Technology campus, the fabrication center comprises more than 14,000 square feet of high-bay (40 feet high) research and construction facilities, a space like no other on an American college campus. With an exhaustive complement of digital and analog tools—including seven laser cutters, two 4-foot by 8-foot flat bed CNC mills, fourteen 3D printers, seven large format Sawstop table saws, 2 multi-ton gantry cranes and more—students can, and do, build projects at every scale. The College has invested more than $1 million in the Fabrication Center in the last 5 years alone, and the pace of change continues to accelerate. Our four highly trained staff members teach across the curriculum and provide service recognized by the University as the finest on campus. This is a College that's all about making, and our unparalleled Fabrication Center is the center of that enterprise.