University of Chicago Library

The Joseph Regenstein Library, often referred to by students as "The Reg", is the main library of the University of Chicago, named after the industrialist and philanthropist Joseph Regenstein. It is one of the largest repositories of books in the world and is noted for its brutalist architecture.

The University of Chicago Graduate Library School (GLS) was established in 1928 to develop a program for the graduate education of librarians with a focus on research. Housed for a time in the Joseph Regenstein Library, the GLS closed in 1989 when the University decided to promote information studies instead of professional education.. GLS faculty were among the most prominent researchers in librarianship in the twentieth century. Alumni of the school have made a great impact on the profession including Hugh Atkinson, Susan Grey Akers, Bernard Berelson, Michèle Cloonan, El Sayed Mahmoud El Sheniti, Eliza Atkins Gleason, Frances E. Henne, Virginia Lacy Jones, William Katz Judith Krug, Lowell Martin, Miriam Matthews, Kathleen de la Peña McCook, Elizabeth Homer Morton, Benjamin E. Powell, W. Boyd Rayward, Charlemae Hill Rollins, Katherine Schipper, Ralph R. Shaw, Spencer Shaw, Peggy Sullivan, Maurice Tauber and Tsuen-hsuin Tsien. In February 2016, Carla Hayden (PhD, 1987) was nominated by President Obama to serve as Librarian of Congress. She was confirmed in July 2016.

The Franke Institute for the Humanities is located in Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. It promotes sharp, rigorous scholarship in the humanities and social sciences by sponsoring research fellows, organizing talks, workshops, and conferences, and attracting participants from the university, the city of Chicago, and a global community of artists, academics, and other interested audiences. The institute is named for Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke, who have supported it financially since its founding in 1990. The current director is Professor James Chandler. The Franke Institute for the Humanities is a member of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI).

The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library is the newest library of the University of Chicago, named after alumni Joe Mansueto and Rika Mansueto. The library has a capacity of 3.5 million volumes under an elliptical dome. It was designed by Helmut Jahn.

Nuclear Energy (1964–66) (LH 526) is a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore on the campus of the University of Chicago at the site of the world's first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1. The first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was created here on December 2, 1942.

Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1) was the world's first artificial nuclear reactor. On 2 December 1942, the first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated in CP-1, during an experiment led by Enrico Fermi. The secret development of the reactor was the first major technical achievement for the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to create atomic bombs during World War II. Developed by the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, it was built under the west viewing stands of the original Stagg Field. Although the project's civilian and military leaders had misgivings about the possibility of a disastrous runaway reaction, they trusted Fermi's safety calculations and decided they could carry out the experiment in a densely populated area. Fermi described the reactor as "a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers".The reactor was assembled in November 1942, by a team that included Fermi, Leo Szilard (who had previously formulated an idea for non-fission chain reaction), Leona Woods, Herbert L. Anderson, Walter Zinn, Martin D. Whitaker, and George Weil. The reactor used natural uranium. This required a very large amount of material in order to reach criticality, along with graphite used as a neutron moderator. The reactor contained 45,000 ultra-pure graphite blocks weighing 360 short tons (330 tonnes), and was fueled by 5.4 short tons (4.9 tonnes) of uranium metal and 45 short tons (41 tonnes) of uranium oxide. Unlike most subsequent nuclear reactors, it had no radiation shielding or cooling system as it operated at very low power – about one-half watt. The pursuit for a reactor had been touched off by concern that Nazi Germany had a substantial scientific lead. The success of Chicago Pile-1 provided the first vivid demonstration of the feasibility of the military use of nuclear energy by the Allies, and the reality of the danger that Nazi Germany could succeed in producing nuclear weapons. Previously, estimates of critical masses had been crude calculations, leading to order-of-magnitude uncertainties about the size of a hypothetical bomb. The successful use of graphite as a moderator paved the way for progress in the Allied effort, whereas the German program languished partly because of the belief that scarce and expensive heavy water would have to be used for that purpose. The Germans had failed to account for the importance of boron and cadmium impurities in the graphite samples on which they ran their test of its usability as a moderator, while Leo Szillard and Enrico Fermi had asked suppliers about the most common contaminations of graphite after a first failed test and consequently ensured the next test would be run with one entirely devoid of them. As it turns out both boron and cadmium are strong neutron poisons. In 1943, CP-1 was moved to Red Gate Woods, and reconfigured to become Chicago Pile-2 (CP-2). There, it was operated for research until 1954, when it was dismantled and buried. The stands at Stagg Field were demolished in August 1957; the site is now a National Historic Landmark and a Chicago Landmark.

Amos Jerome Snell Hall and Charles Hitchcock Hall, more commonly known as Snell–Hitchcock (colloquially Snitchcock) or The Dorm For All The Goofy Nerds, make up a residence hall at the University of Chicago. The dorm is on the northwest corner of the University's main quadrangles at the corner of 57th St. and Ellis Avenue. It is connected via emergency exits to Searle Chemistry Laboratory. Built in 1892 (Snell) and 1901 (Hitchcock), they are the oldest residence halls still in use as such on the university's campus. Snell is built in a Collegiate Gothic style, while Hitchcock is Prairie Style-inspired Gothic. The buildings feature fireplaces and exteriors of limestone, as well as hardwood molding and trim. Snell–Hitchcock is known for having a high level of community spirit and involvement, which are best displayed at the annual University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt. As of 2015, the Snell–Hitchcock team has won 14 of the 29 hunts to date, and holds the longest winning streak (four years) in the history of the game.Hitchcock House's mascot is the armadillo. Snell House's mascot is the tortoise, after being recently changed from a monkey.

The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The permanent collection has over 15,000 objects. Admission is free and open to the public.The Smart Museum and the adjacent Cochrane-Woods Art Center were designed by the architect Edward Larrabee Barnes.

Hutchinson Commons (also known as Hutchinson Hall) at the University of Chicago is modeled, nearly identically, on the hall of Christ Church, one of Oxford University's constituent colleges. The great room (or main dining room) measures 115 feet by 40 feet, and was for many years the principal site of convocations of the university. It is located in Chicago's Hyde Park community and is currently used as a dining hall and lounge for university students and professors. The building was donated to the University by the banker, philanthropist and university trustee and treasurer Charles L. Hutchinson through a donation of $60,000 (about $1.7 million in 2015) for the purpose.

Court Theatre is a professional theatre company located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, where it was established in 1955. Court Theatre is affiliated with the University of Chicago, receiving in-kind support from the University and operating within the larger University umbrella. Court Theatre puts on five plays per season, which are attended by over 35,000 people each year, in addition to various smaller performance events such as play readings.

WHPK (88.5 FM) is an American radio station based in Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago, established in 1968. The station is owned by the University of Chicago, and operated by volunteer students and community members. WHPK's station manager and program director are elected by the station's student members and must be students themselves. The station's broadcast engineer is paid by the university.

The Metallurgical Laboratory (or Met Lab) was a scientific laboratory at the University of Chicago that was established in February 1942 to study and use the newly discovered chemical element plutonium. It researched plutonium's chemistry and metallurgy, designed the world's first nuclear reactors to produce it, and developed chemical processes to separate it from other elements. In August 1942 the lab's chemical section was the first to chemically separate a weighable sample of plutonium, and on 2 December 1942, the Met Lab produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction, in the reactor Chicago Pile-1, which was constructed under the stands of the university's old football stadium, Stagg Field. The Metallurgical Laboratory was established as part of the Metallurgical Project, also known as the "Pile" or "X-10" Project, headed by Chicago professor Arthur H. Compton, a Nobel Prize laureate. In turn, this was part of the Manhattan Project – the Allied effort to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. The Metallurgical Laboratory was successively led by Richard L. Doan, Samuel K. Allison, Joyce C. Stearns and Farrington Daniels. Scientists who worked there included Enrico Fermi, James Franck, Eugene Wigner and Glenn Seaborg. At its peak on 1 July 1944, it had 2,008 staff. Chicago Pile-1 was soon moved by the lab to Site A, a more remote location in the Argonne Forest preserves, where the original materials were used to build an improved Chicago Pile-2 to be employed in new research into the products of nuclear fission. Another reactor, Chicago Pile-3, was built at the Argonne site in early 1944. This was the world's first reactor to use heavy water as a neutron moderator. It went critical in May 1944, and was first operated at full power in July 1944. The Metallurgical Laboratory also designed the X-10 Graphite Reactor at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the B Reactor at the Hanford Engineer Works in the state of Washington. As well as the work on reactor development, the Metallurgical Laboratory studied the chemistry and metallurgy of plutonium, and worked with DuPont to develop the bismuth phosphate process used to separate plutonium from uranium. When it became certain that nuclear reactors would involve radioactive materials on a gigantic scale, there was considerable concern about the health and safety aspects, and the study of the biological effects of radiation assumed greater importance. It was discovered that plutonium, like radium, was a bone seeker, making it especially hazardous. The Metallurgical Laboratory became the first of the national laboratories, the Argonne National Laboratory, on 1 July 1946. The work of the Met Lab also led to the creation of the Enrico Fermi Institute and the James Franck Institute at the university.