The buildings that comprise Northwestern Law are at once both eye-pleasing and practical. Nestled in the heart of Chicago with stunning views of Lake Michigan, the school’s several buildings-ranging in architecture from gothic to modern-are interconnected, minimizing the need for attendees to face the cold of the season.
Housed in the Bauhaus showpiece of the school’s lakeside Arthur Rubloff building, Thorne Auditorium is a state-of-the-art facility with the capacity to seat 732 Symposium attendees. The auditorium, wheelchair accessible and on the first floor of the building, features integrated audio visual capabilities, excellent acoustics and sight lines, and comfortable seating. If spill-over rooms are needed, two nearby video-equipped auditoriums together can accommodate another 200 attendees.
In addition to the modern auditorium and classrooms, the school also houses the historic Lincoln Hall, which is modeled after England’s House of Commons and boasts several historic portraits of Abraham Lincoln alongside memorabilia from the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Though the capacious hall’s two stories of stained-glass windows and scores of old-fashioned wooden desks lend an air of law-school days past, the 300-person capacity hall is also equipped with all of the modern audio-visual facilities required for any debate or lecture presentation, and its desk seats are generously cushioned.
The law school’s Rubloff building is ideally suited for Symposium receptions, breakfast, and lunch spreads. Thorne Lobby, outside the aforementioned 732-seat auditorium, is a gallery of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Michigan’s rolling waves. The lobby alone can easily accommodate 400 people, and opens out on either end to the law school’s stunning Atrium, an architectural showcase joining the modern Rubloff building to the school’s gothic-inspired, 1920’s-era Levy Mayer hall (whose original greystone façade is retained as the western wall of the Atrium). Housed under three stories of glass, the airy Atrium and its connecting corridors can hold an additional 300 people for the weekends’ receptions and between-panel gatherings.
