UChicago Medicine lab and Malcolm X College campus plans take shape in Washington Park

Plans for a three-building lab and job-training complex at Garfield Boulevard and King Drive in Washington Park became public this week, Chicago YIMBY reported on October 8, 2026. The plans put a four-story UChicago Medicine pathology lab, a four-story Malcolm X College classroom building and a five-story parking garage on vacant land beside the CTA Green Line’s Garfield station, on the South Side of Chicago.

UChicago Medicine and City Colleges of Chicago announced the partnership in March 2024. The new material this month is the design itself: renderings, building sizes, a cost figure in a state filing and a schedule that now runs about two years behind the original one. YIMBY’s story did not say where its renderings came from beyond a photo credit. In the same week, UChicago Medicine said the full site plan was presented at an October 6 community meeting, and Urbanize Chicago reported that a zoning application has been filed.

The plans at a glance

Here is what the project looks like as of October 2026, based on the outlets and filings named in each line.

• The UChicago Medicine lab would be four stories and 144,368 square feet, according to the medical center’s state permit application.
• The Malcolm X College building would be four stories and about 58,000 square feet, according to Chicago YIMBY and the Hyde Park Herald.
• The parking garage would be five stories, YIMBY reported, with 630 spaces, according to UChicago Medicine.
• The lab carries an estimated cost of $327,859,027 in the state filing.
• Lab and garage construction is planned for spring 2027, pending approvals, with both opening in 2029.

What each building would hold

The lab would anchor the east end of the site at the King Drive corner. YIMBY described a lobby and a small public food hall with outdoor dining on the ground floor, with large labs, offices and shared rooms above. In a news release on October 8, UChicago Medicine said the building would pull together pathology labs now split among separate Hyde Park buildings and add space for test development, digital pathology and clinical genomics. The medical center projects testing volume to rise about 17 percent in the first year, partly by bringing specialized tests back from out-of-state labs.

The state application spells out the consolidation. Lab operations now take up roughly 105,000 square feet across fourteen locations, and the new building would fit them into 83,552 square feet of lab space. A monitored specimen-transport system would replace the pneumatic tubes, trolleys and couriers used today. The Hyde Park Herald reported that the lab would run around the clock, stand about 94 feet tall and be clad in white precast panels and glass in a pattern inspired by DNA barcoding.

No food hall vendors have been named. UChicago Medicine said the medical center will build out the space and lease stalls through a competitive request for proposals, with local and South Side businesses invited to apply. A draft letter of intent dated September 11, 2026, and attached to the state application places the food hall at the building’s southeast corner and says the space may be open to the public during normal business hours.

The Malcolm X College building would sit at Calumet Avenue and Garfield, between the lab and the garage, tied to both by a landscaped plaza. YIMBY counted seven classrooms, six labs, offices and a small community room for events. The Herald reported that the classrooms would hold 32 to 40 students and the labs 24 to 32, with room for up to 475 students a semester and about 155 expected in the first fall. Programs would include medical lab technology, phlebotomy and sterile processing, with anesthesia technician, medical assistant, patient care technician and community health worker training also planned. UChicago Medicine said the building would house the city’s first medical laboratory technician program. Urbanize put the building at about 50,000 square feet, lower than the 58,000 reported by YIMBY and the Herald.

The garage would take the west end, against the L tracks, with a pedestrian bridge to the lab. The Herald said the garage would stand about 70 feet and serve UChicago Medicine employees, Malcolm X students and staff, and workers at future buildings on the site. UChicago Medicine said the plan includes a public transit waiting area near the station, keeps traffic inside the site and widens 54th Place while leaving that street open to the public.

A large lot to the north would stay open for future development, YIMBY reported. The draft letter of intent describes additional parcels for offices, medical services, warehouse space and other uses, and says the planned zoning would cover about 126,407 square feet of other land controlled by a University of Chicago real estate affiliate.

What was announced in 2024

The partnership was first laid out on March 5, 2024, at an event with Mayor Brandon Johnson. At the time, the University of Chicago said the two buildings would bring up to 600 jobs to Washington Park, where about 40 percent of the land was vacant and the 2021 unemployment rate was 21 percent. The mayor’s office release quoted Johnson: “I applaud the partnership and the investment on our great South Side.”

The 2024 plan called for groundbreaking in 2025 and an opening in the 2026-27 school year, according to UChicago Medicine and an April 4, 2024, presentation to the City Colleges board. The college building was then drawn just east of the station, with the lab farther east. The new plan moves the college to Calumet and puts the garage by the tracks. City Colleges officials said the new spot gets natural light on every side and less train noise, according to the Herald. On the delay, the university said, “Projects of this complexity often require years of planning.”

Parking came up early. At a June 2024 community meeting, residents worried that workers and students would fill nearby streets, and the Herald reported then that a multi-level garage was under consideration. On June 11, 2025, the Chicago Transit Board approved a “land-for-learning” deal: the CTA would sell about 0.9 acres of surplus land near the station, appraised at $370,000, to City Colleges in exchange for tuition credits of equal value for CTA employees over five years. The draft letter of intent lists a deed of the garage site from City Colleges to the university affiliate for $370,000, and a deed of the college site from the affiliate to City Colleges.

Approvals still ahead

The project needs both state and city sign-off. The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board lists UChicago Medicine’s application as project 26-044, for a lab at 362 E. Garfield Blvd. YIMBY placed the complex at roughly 356 E. Garfield Blvd., and Urbanize used 370 E. Garfield. The state board declared the application complete on October 1, 2026, and tentatively set it for the board’s December 15 meeting. Requests for a public hearing are due October 16, and written comments are due November 25.

On the city side, Urbanize reported that the zoning application seeks to change the land from RS-3 to C2-3 and then to a planned development, which needs the Chicago Plan Commission, the City Council’s zoning committee and the full City Council. UChicago Medicine expects the Plan Commission review in November. The Herald reported that only the lab and garage are under city review for now. City Colleges plans to seek approval for the college building next year and has not set a construction schedule.

The site lies in the 3rd Ward, according to the city’s ward boundary map, and the city lists Pat Dowell as the ward’s alderperson. UChicago Medicine said the lab designs were first shared at a community meeting Dowell held in July. In the medical center’s release, Dowell proposed connecting the campus with Burke Elementary, Dyett High School and Daniel Hale Williams Prep, and said, “The medical field keeps growing, and I want our young people ready for it.”

Timeline from announcement to opening

The schedule has moved since 2024, and the dates below come from the sources named in this story.

• The partners announced the project with Mayor Johnson on March 5, 2024.
• The Chicago Transit Board approved the land sale to City Colleges on June 11, 2025.
• The state review board declared UChicago Medicine’s permit application complete on October 1, 2026.
• The Chicago Plan Commission is expected to review the planned development in November 2026.
• The state review board is tentatively set to consider the lab on December 15, 2026.
• Lab and garage construction is planned to start in spring 2027, with opening in 2029.

YIMBY reported construction starting in early 2027. The state application lists April 30, 2030, as the anticipated project completion date, a later date than the 2029 opening the institutions describe. UChicago Medicine said a contractor will soon start tearing down the former gas station at Garfield and King Drive.

Jobs and pay

The lab would hold about 550 jobs, YIMBY and UChicago Medicine reported: about 350 moved from existing Hyde Park buildings and about 200 new entry-level positions. UChicago Medicine estimates construction would support about 1,380 jobs. The Herald reported that clinical lab associates with an associate degree start at about $39,000 a year, while cytotechnologists with a bachelor’s degree can earn more than $100,000. The 2024 announcement put associate-degree lab pay at $42,000 to $80,000.

The 2024 announcement also tied the lab to added testing capacity for UChicago Medicine’s new cancer pavilion. The Herald said that building, the AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion on the other side of Washington Park, is expected to open in April 2027.

Getting to the site

The site sits right next to the L, and the CTA’s own pages confirm the basics for getting there.

• The Garfield station on the Green Line is at 320 E. Garfield Blvd., on the west edge of the site, and the CTA lists the station as accessible.
• The #55 Garfield bus connects at the station and runs west to the Midway Orange Line station.
• The planned garage would hold 630 cars for employees, students and workers at future buildings, and public parking terms have not been announced.
• The lab corner sits across King Drive from the park itself, according to the Herald.

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