Breck has been left empty since 2016. I have not found any University official statement on its future fate.
University had sold Broadview and Maclean to private investors and they have since then become rental apartments. But as of today, Breck status is still in limbo. Maybe University has plan after WRC is completed.
@CountingDown - Breckinridge House is currently moved over to I-House. Best guess is that they haven’t been able to open I-House to guests for the past few years due to larger numbers of enrolled. Things might be a tad different since your last visit (either in person or on the UChicago CC thread). College working to hit 7,000 enrolled!
If anything, I think plans for Breck might be awaiting the completion of the Obama Presidential Center, not WRC. If the center is built at the proposed site (a few blocks southeast of Breck), that land will gain serious value. Selling at that point could help the University retire some of its debt/finance some new projects without additional loans.
While I agree with @DunBoyer post, if the University is to sell any real estate after OPC is done, it will be most likely the big piece of parking lot right at the corner of Stony Island and 60th Street. That will be prime real estate for a upscale or even luxurious high rise.
I just walked by the Woodlawn construction site today. Everything seemed to be progressing nicely.
But I was somewhat disappointed by the exterior of WRC. The whole complex looks exactly like the South. For that the Administration needed to hire a new architect?
While I don’t necessarily expect WRC to be visually stunning (due to cost) , making it into a mere bigger version of the South is certainly depressing. WRC especially looks worse with the Rubenstein Forum going up next door with its soaring architecture.
Now I am happy the view of WRC is blocked by the 1155 East 60th Street (which is an eye sore of chunks of nondescript concrete slabs).
^ Is that the address for Harris?
It used to be the old address of Harris but Harris has moved on to the fancy new dig at Keller Center:
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/new-keller-center-reflects-harris-public-policys-growing-ambitions
BTW, RBG is going to give a lecture at Harris on this coming Monday. That is the hottest ticket on campus. You will bet Harris would not invite RBG to speak at the old 1155 E 60th Street location.
That building is currently hosting NORC:
https://www.norc.org/Pages/default.aspx
I barely remember this NORC exists. Eventually this eye sore of a building will be torn down for some far fancier academic halls. We just need another generous donor. Maybe Cliff Asness of AQR?
Fama House? Why not Friedman House or Lucas House 
?
So there will be 11 houses in total for WRC and it will host 1,200 students. That is less than 1,300 beds originally posted but the extra 100 beds may go to RH and RA.
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/university-announces-names-seven-new-college-residential-houses
^ Or at the very least Hansen House since Lars also won the prize that year. Maybe Fama has donated but no one from econ has done so? If I were Ken Griffin I’d be looking into why my namesake is being ignored by the College.
Also, how odd they didn’t mention that the Fama’s are parents to at least one College alum.
Elizabeth Fama is an U of C product through hand through:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Fama
We are talking about a person who spent from 3 year old all the way to 27 (?) at U of C. Wow 
I met her many years ago while I was doing a summer job at GSB. Well, she is now a young adult fiction writer.
Ken Griffin already has his name on our crown jewel Dept. of Econ.
^ Good point about Beth Fama. That makes Gene and Sally LAB parents as well. Surprised it wasn’t mentioned.
Beth is married to John Cochrane, himself a product of Lab. (I think?). Attended MIT then Cal-Berkeley and then faculty in Chicago Econ. and Booth. I believe they have moved to Stanford/Hoover now but not sure if that’s permanent. Cochrane is the son of the renowned Italian historian (and colleague of John Boyer) Eric Cochrane. I have friends who did their Western Civ. with him. He tragically died in '85. Eric Cochrane’s wife was Lydia Steinway Cochrane (yes, THOSE Steinways) who was an integral member of the university community, a scholar in the French language and a professional translator of her husband’s and many other works at U of C. She just died a year or two ago. I’ve run across citations of both Eric and Lydia’s publications in Turabian’s Chicago Style Manual (not surprising) AND also in the MLA Handbook (which IS surprising). Both dedicated and talented scholars and quite well known in their fields at one time.
This isn’t the only account of multi-generational scholarship in the University community. Too bad it isn’t shared more openly. Boyer is the one with the institutional memory so it’s up to him to take care of this. Charting the path going forward is crucial, no doubt, but so is preserving the details concerning the rich intellectual legacy there. In many cases, it was a family affair!
Almost forgot - there IS the Beck/Friedman Institute, complete with museum, apparently (never visited). Maybe Bob Lucas should will his body a la Jeremy Bentham. It can go right next to all the JB Clark and Nobel medals on display.
Off topic from WRC but it is pointed out to my DD that there are multi-generational History scholars at the University. Boyer should know the McNeills well.
Those were some facts about Eric Cochrane I didn’t know. As part of the old Western Civ course he gave several very exciting lectures on Italian subjects, and I believe he also taught a seminar section. A dapper sharp-featured man in a beret, he exuded pure brilliance. He spoke without ever consulting a note, as if he were reminiscing about something that had just happened to him personally. He became so animated while talking about Macchiavelli in exile that it seemed he would surely explode right there on the podium in Mandel Hall.
I have read that he died unexpectedly on a train en route to Florence, perhaps not far from the place of Macchiavelli’s exile. That temperamental excitedness and combustibility must have taken a toll on his heart. Still, if he died too young, it seems right that it should have been in those circumstances, on a train he must have taken many times to a beloved city.
His big book on Venice in the forgotten centuries is dedicated to the citizens of Venice and Chicago. I had never before thought of Chicagoans and Venetians as kindred spirits. It was a fitting linkage, however, in a man of aristocratic temperament who loved democratic city life.
Fama donates a lot to the University. If I am not mistaken he has endowed 1 or is it 2 professorships. It makes sense though since he presumably has a lot of money by owning of shares in Booth’s dimensional fund (since he was there with him from the get go and probably got shares for cheap)
I wont be surprised if he donated for the house name too.
I wonder how much a house name costs?
@marlowe1 I believe you have the facts correct about Eric Cochrane’s unexpected death. He was definitely abroad. Someone told me the guy was a super fit runner who smoked like a chimney. He either had a heart attack or stroke.
My guess is at least $5 million.
Nowadays in Booth news there are frequent mentions of alumni donating money. Usually a fellowship costs at least $2 million. To have a College house under your name will likely require more.
Campus South was named after RGG when she bequeathed $34 million to the University. Campus North or WRC have no name yet because there aren’t similar donors of that sum for now. Well, if you donate that large a fortune, presumably you want your name on an academic building like Rubenstein Forum instead of a dorm.
I wonder what sum entitles you to pick your building/academic department? We know that Econ. sold for $125 mil. One should factor in tax benefits when making these calculations.
Actually I read that a year ago Divinity School was asking for a donor and was willing to name the school after the donor. But I don’t remember what the asking price was. $25 million? $100 million?
Since I can’t find the source anymore, I would qualify my statement as a rumor. And I found it pretty ironic that a school devoted to study of spirituality was asking thing as nonspiritual as money 
Campus South was named after RGG for $34 million. That would give you a ballpark figure on how much the University is asking for.
Not a ton of rich theologian’s out there. It would also be tough to come up with someone that is tied to a “flavor” for a school that tries to be “flavorless.” I’d love to see some of these “schools” get named after people who “did” something academic/advancing the body of knowledge. I totally understand the “value” of the naming rights of a school/dorm, but for a school that prides itself on producing people who are in it for more than the money, I think it would be cool to reward people who are rich in other ways.
The basic frame of WRC is done. In fact I can see the top of WRC from my vantage point here on the fifth floor of Reg. In addition, the outer frame of Rubenstein Forum is also completed. Rubinstein Forum will be a great building to have classes there. It will have multiple floors of ceiling to floor glass curtain wall with stunning view of Harper Library and Rockefeller Chapel and of course Midway Plaisance in winter.
Now the construction workers are working on the interiors of WRC. I can see a section with tall glass curtain wall that must be the dining commons. I can imagine the massive traffic jam and parking nightmare on 60th Street this time next year when 1,200 plus families need to move in WRC. Well, students at BJ and RGG next year will suddenly have a lot more companies crossing Midway to and from Main Quad. The center of gravity of the entire undergrad housing and social scene will shift to the south of 60th Street.