Buildings of Indiana University South Bend

The limestone Indiana University Center (now known as Northside Hall) opened in September, 1961, already too small for the needs of its 1,500 students.  The most attractive feature of the building was its 800 seat auditorium with a fully equipped stage and ample dressing rooms. The concrete-faced five-story addition known as Northside West was built in 1970-1971 to add desperately needed classroom, laboratory, library and office space, as well as a 300-seat performance space for music and theater productions as well as large lecture classes.  Known for years officially as Northside 138, it was remodeled and acoustically enhanced in 2015 and renamed the Louise E. Addicott and Yatish J. Joshi Performance Hall.

Rapid growth in enrollment and state authorization for four-year degree programs led the University to purchase the Huckins Tool & Die Co. Inc. factory in 1966.  The brick building on Greenlawn Avenue was remodeled for classrooms and offices and named Greenlawn Hall.   It served chiefly as host for classes and offices for the School of Education, as well as the Education Resource Center.  It was at this time that the original Center was renamed Northside Hall.  Greenlawn Hall was demolished in May of 2015 and the site is currently vacant.

The elegant limestone Administration Building facing Mishawaka Avenue was built in 1961-62 as the national headquarters for the Associates Investment Co.  It was occupied by the University in 1977 and used primarily for administrative and student service offices as well as School of Business classrooms and offices.  The large attached cafeteria structure is actually a separate building, officially called University Center although generally thought of as part of the Administration Building.   It also includes the Child Development Center, a daycare facility for children of faculty, staff and students.  South Bend was the first IU campus to offer daycare in 1970.

IU South Bend’s fourth building, Riverside Hall, was hurriedly built in 1969 to provide desperately needed office, laboratory, as well as clinical facilities for new programs in dental assisting and dental hygiene. Located across Northside Boulevard from the rest of the campus, its location was sometimes considered rather isolated by students and faculty. The dental education program was relocated to the Education and Arts building in 2013. In 2016, Riverside Hall was remodeled for use by the Vera Z. Dwyer College of Health Sciences. The building was renamed Vera Z. Dwyer Hall and is now in use under this name as the campus Health and Wellness Center.

The Fine Arts Building was erected in the early 1950s by the Stanz Cheese Co. as an insulated cold storage warehouse for a variety of food products.  IU acquired the building in 1975.

The Schurz Library opened in 1989.  The library is named for Franklin D. Schurz, chairman of the board of Schurz Communications, Inc., a newspaper and broadcasting company headquartered in South Bend. 

The Purdue Technology Building facing Northside Boulevard was built as an Army Reserve Center in the early 1960s and acquired by IU in the early 1990s. Most of the structure is used for Purdue Technology programs, although the building itself is owned by IU which leases space to Purdue University. It opened for classes in 1993. The Purdue Polytechnic Institute program began to move off of IU South Bend campus in December 2019. In March 2021, the building was renamed Parkside Hall. The building currently houses campus facilities management.

Wiekamp Hall (built 1998), on Mishawaka Avenue across from Potawatomi Park, was the first purpose- built classroom facility added to the campus in more than thirty years. The site was long occupied by the local Coca-Cola bottling works. Wiekamp Hall is used chiefly by the humanities and social science departments of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Dar and Dot Wiekamp were Elkhart philanthropists.

Completed in 1998 and extends from Mishawaka Avenue to the Schurz Library with architecturally harmonious buildings arranged around a grassy quadrangle partly shaded by a variety of deciduous trees and ornamental plants.  The line of boulders placed on the Mall was designed by sculpture professor Tuck Langland to symbolize the creation and attainment of knowledge, beginning in front of the Schurz Library and culminating at the Administration Building to symbolize the partnership and collaboration between all academic units and administration on campus. The boulders meet in the center to symbolize the central point of all campus operations: the students themselves.  Professor Langland also designed the fountain at the center of the Mall.

Opened in 2004, the Student Activities Center provides space for student activities and athletics, including two basketball courts, racquet ball courts, a running track and extensive exercise facilities and dressing rooms. 

The Education and Arts Building was originally the Associates computer facility. Owned by IU since 1975, it was rented by Associates for more than thirty years and both Associates and IU shared space in the building until 2012. IU remodeled the building in 2013 with ample space for the School of Education, much of the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts, and the Dental Hygiene Program.

Opened in time for the Fall semester of 2008.  They provide housing for 400 students. In addition to the eight apartment buildings there is also a community center.  The bridge with its large letters spelling out INDIANA UNIVERSITY SOUTH BEND has become the most recognizable and frequently photographed symbol for the campus.

The Women’s Center had three locations at various times – both off and on campus. The Women’s Center was begun in 1979 at 913 20^th Street. In 1985 it moved to 929 Greenlawn Avenue. In 1988 it came to the IU South Bend campus and was in Northside Hall. There was not a formalized Women’s Center after 1996 on campus – or off.

The Elkhart Center of IU South Bend was completed in 2007, providing a permanent base and presence in Elkhart. It is 25,000 square feet in downtown Elkhart. The Elkhart Center offers credit classes year around. It had previously been housed in rented space.