The University of Chicago Campus Directory Map is the official wayfinding tool for the university’s Hyde Park campus. Where most campus maps are built to impress prospective students, this one is built for the people already here. It answers a narrower and far more frequent question: where is that building, which department sits inside it, and how do I get there.
With 220 published locations, the map replaces the static printable directory that campuses of this size usually rely on. It sits alongside the university’s PDF and accessibility maps as the interactive option, and it is the version that works on a phone while someone is standing on the quad.
What’s on the Map
- Academic buildings and departments. Every building on the Hyde Park campus, with the departments, schools and institutes housed inside it, so a search for a department leads to a place.
- Libraries, labs and study spaces. The research and study facilities that make up the daily campus routine, marked and described individually.
- Student services and administrative offices. Registrar, financial aid, health and support offices, the destinations visitors most often arrive looking for.
- Dining, residence halls and athletics. The everyday campus, grouped so a new student can orient themselves in one pass.
- Access points and parking. Practical detail for visitors driving in, and for anyone planning a route across a large urban campus.
Interactive Features
- Directory-scale search. 220 locations stay usable because visitors can search by building name, department or service rather than scanning pins.
- Categories and filters. Turning categories on and off narrows a dense campus down to the one layer someone actually needs.
- Detail on every location. Each entry carries a description, imagery and the practical information a static directory list cannot hold.
- Direct links to university pages. Call-to-action buttons send visitors from a building straight to the department or service page behind it, so the map feeds the wider site rather than dead-ending.
- Directions from anywhere. Visitors get routing to a specific building instead of a campus-wide pin.
- Built for mobile. The map is used in the field, on a phone, by someone who is already late.
Brand Experience and Takeaway
For a campus this size, the map is infrastructure rather than marketing. It carries the university’s identity while doing an operational job: cutting the volume of “where is” questions that reach front desks, department offices and campus security, and giving every team on campus one shared source for building information.
The takeaway for other institutions is that a campus map does not have to choose between the admissions tour and the directory. They are two different maps for two different audiences, and the directory is the one that gets used every day of the year.
About the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in the Hyde Park neighbourhood of Chicago, founded in 1890. Its campus spans hundreds of buildings across the South Side, housing the College, four divisions and several professional schools.
Learn more about building maps for large campuses on Mapme’s campus map solutions page.