MLTS is moving!

Meadville Lombard is moving to a new space!

180 N. Wabash, Chicago

On behalf of the Meadville Lombard Board of Trustees, we are delighted to announce that the board has voted unanimously in favor of moving the school to a new space located in the Loop, the main section of Downtown Chicago. The MLTS Leadership Team has completed a detailed financial analysis, listened to the needs of our students, reimagined what MLTS can offer to the community, and made a sound recommendation to the board. We are in full support of it and cannot be more excited for the beginning of the school’s new era. Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael & Rev. Parisa Parsa
MLTS Board Co-Chairs

^{Our new space is where the red marker is on this map. The purple marker is our current location.}

At a special meeting of the Board called in March 2021, the Meadville Lombard Leadership Team — President Ortega, Vice President Lightsey, and Vice President Redman — recommended that Meadville Lombard enter a 12-year lease for space in the 180 N. Wabash building. This was not a decision arrived at lightly, as we have enjoyed a good relationship with the Spertus Institute, and we know that moving our entire operation will be challenging and disruptive. But we strongly believe that this move will enhance the experience of our students and prepare us well for the future.

Our 10-year lease for office space at the Spertus Building expires in December 2021. Although the lease provides for two 5-year renewals, the Leadership Team believed it was in the best interests of the school to test the real estate market given the current environment that has resulted from the pandemic.

In order to identify desirable space, and to live into good stewardship of our financial resources, the Leadership Team named the following priorities:

Having classrooms that we control. We have not always been able to secure classrooms at Spertus when we needed them and that negatively affected the experience of our students. In addition, renting classrooms adds to the overall cost of our lease. The additional cost of classrooms forces us to be cautious as we think of enrollment growth, face-to-face formation, and new programming.
Maintaining a location that is convenient for our students and meets their needs. We must do our best to meet the needs of our students and we are aware that our current space has some shortcomings. For example, we do not have a dedicated chapel or worship space.
Creating or identifying a space that meets our current needs and provides flexibility for our future needs within our budget realities. We need to grow our sources of revenue to create a school that will be sustainable for a long time to come and we must have appropriate space to support this.
A place for our library holdings that is accessible and meets the research needs of our learning community.
Maintaining or, preferably, reducing our annual lease expense in order to minimize the impact of annual rent escalation.

Why move now?

Over the years and, more specifically, in a survey taken by the Student Advisory Council in the Spring of 2019, the results of which were shared with the BOT at the time, our students have shared their desires for improvements to our space including:

Classrooms with natural light: our students have spent up to 8 hours a day in a classroom and, most of the time, these classrooms have no windows and only fluorescent lighting. As a result, our students have reported their dissatisfaction with the classrooms we use. Although we can request classrooms with windows from Spertus, we have no control over whether they will be available and we have to pay a premium for those classrooms. At 180 N. Wabash, all 3 classrooms will have natural light.
Classroom access: Currently, we rent classroom space based on availability. At 180 N. Wabash, we will have full control of our classrooms, which will allow us to increase curricular and co-curricular activities.
A meditation space: our students have requested a quiet space where they can attend to their spirit during what are very stressful days of intensives. Over time, we have created this space for them in Atherton Lounge and then in the workroom where we also have workstations for a few employees. More recently, we had begun renting an extra classroom to accommodate our students’ request. We will have a dedicated meditation space at 180 N. Wabash.
A chapel: at the October 2019 BOT meeting, the student representative to the BOT reported that students indicated they wanted a “chapel/sanctified space at MLTS.” Currently, the Atherton Lounge serves not only as our multipurpose gathering place but also as our makeshift chapel. We will have a dedicated chapel at 180 N. Wabash.
Storage: in response to a direct request, we installed cubbies for our students to store their belongings while they are with us. While the students were appreciative of this effort, the cubbies do not provide any security. At 180 N. Wabash, we will have lockable storage for our students.
Transgender and non-binary student safety: we created a gender-neutral restroom in our space at Spertus and we will have a gender-neutral restroom on our floor at 180 N. Wabash. (November 2018 BOT meeting.)
ADA accessibility: we added automated door openers to our restrooms at Spertus and will have these at 180 N. Wabash as well. (November 2018 BOT meeting.)
Small group meeting space: many classes require small group work and there is no good space for this currently. Students can sometimes use Atherton Lounge but often would prefer a more private space. The space design at 180 N. Wabash includes 2 small meeting rooms in addition to a large conference room. Also, we would not be sharing space in our library at 180 N. Wabash so students would be able to have small group meetings there as well.
Electrical outlets in classrooms: as students’ use of technology in the classroom increases, the demand for electricity to charge devices has grown. The classrooms at Spertus cannot accommodate this demand however our design at 180 N. Wabash does.

Our time at Spertus has been a period of stabilization. A decade ago, after experiencing substantial financial stress, the decision was made to sell the Meadville Lombard buildings in Hyde Park in order to generate funds to sustain the school’s operations. Needing a new home, the modern, newly constructed Spertus Building was selected to represent the forward-looking vision of the school and to be the location of a new iteration of Meadville Lombard and its curricula. During this 10-year period, the school stabilized financially, academically, and administratively. We are now in a position to determine the future direction of Meadville Lombard that asks us to consider two very different options:

Do we want to continue to be a small theological school with limited degree programs primarily serving a smaller number of UU-identified students? or
Do we invest in our future and innovate by creating new programs and revenue streams that prepare a larger, broader audience of students to carry our UU values into the world?

The space at 180 N. Wabash allows for growth and flexibility that are not afforded by Spertus, without us incurring significant expenses. In addition, our new space will include:

A large, flexible public space that we envision using to host community groups with whom we are growing relationships and will collaborate; and
A recording studio to enable us to host podcasts with scholars, faith leaders, and community leaders that will help us become recognized as the thought leader that we already are.

The design of the space at 180 N. Wabash also recognizes changes in work preferences that have been evolving both before and during the pandemic. Although we currently have approximately 21 employees, we have designed the space to accommodate only 8 private offices for those people who regularly need privacy for phone and in-person conversations. Working remotely is a reality of the current labor force. The vast majority of our employees have expressed a desire to be in the office less than half-time and we have learned during the pandemic that we are able to work well together and maintain a strong sense of community even when we are all fully remote. Consequently, we are comfortable allowing employees to work from home and they will have ample stations to plug laptops into when they are in the office. Our faculty will have a dedicated faculty lounge with secure storage for their belongings and space to socialize with their colleagues. In addition to a large conference room, two small meeting rooms will also be available to accommodate those without offices as needed.

We firmly believe we have designed a great space — one that provides classrooms that we can use any time of day or night without additional expense, one that provides a chapel that will be available to students of all faiths, one that accommodates our employees’ preferred work arrangements, and one that provides us the flexibility to make changes as we grow into our future. We are confident that entering into a lease at 180 N. Wabash reflects good stewardship of our financial resources as well as a new space that addresses the shortcomings of our current space and envisions future needs.

These interior photos are "before" we start customizing the space for our needs. We cannot wait to share the "after" photos later in the year!