Roosevelt's Historic Downtown Campus
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Since 1947 Roosevelt's home has been the famous Auditorium Building on Michigan Avenue, overlooking Grant Park and Lake Michigan. Completed in 1890 at a cost of six to ten times more than any other building of its day, the Auditorium Building is considered the masterpiece of architects Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and was declared a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of Interior in 1975. In 1976 the Auditorium Building was designated a Chicago Landmark by the Chicago City Council.

One of the earliest multipurpose buildings constructed in this country, the Auditorium Building originally included a luxurious 400-room hotel, a business section of 136 offices and stores, and the Auditorium Theatre seating 4,200. The theatre, world renowned for its beauty and near-perfect acoustics, was once described by Frank Lloyd Wright as " ... the greatest room for music and opera in the world bar none." Wright served his apprenticeship as chief draftsman for Adler and Sullivan during construction of the Auditorium Building.

Under the auspices of the Auditorium Theatre Council, the theatre was restored to its original elegance and had its second opening in 1967. Roosevelt students enjoy many events in the theatre at reduced rates or free of charge. The Auditorium Theatre is owned by Roosevelt and it is used for major theatrical events, graduation exercises, occasional university concerts and other events.

Throughout the years the university has continued to renovate and restore the Auditorium Building. Some rooms such as Rudolph Ganz Memorial Hall, the Louis Sullivan Room, and Oscar Fainman Memorial Hall have been restored. The university's most ambitious restoration projects to date were the Michigan Avenue lobby and the south alcove of the Murray-Green Library reading room on the tenth floor. Floor space for classrooms, laboratories, faculty offices, and other facilities was increased by more than one third in 1971 with the renovation of the eight-story tower and the construction of the nine-story Walter E. Heller Center in an interior court.

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