Campus and Buildings

The campus of IU Northwest in Gary is adjacent to 240 acres of wooded park land, much of which, as currently developed, includes municipal playing fields, baseball diamonds, and golf courses. The city of Gary has already given 32.8 acres of this park property to Indiana University for the campus. The Gleason Park site is bounded on the north by an interstate expressway (I 80-94), on the east by a major north-south artery (Broadway-Indiana 53), on the west by the Gleason Park Golf Course, and on the south by residential housing. The northeast and northwest corners of the 240-acre tract lie adjacent to expressway cloverleaf exchanges east and west.

Eight of the buildings used by IU Northwest are located on the 27-acre main campus site. The buildings are the original classroom/ office building occupied in 1959; a second classroom/ office building and a student union building, which were put into operation in 1969; a four-story classroom/ office building, which was occupied in 1976 and includes a computer center linked to the computer facilities in Bloomington and Indianapolis; and the Library/ Conference Center completed in the spring of 1980. A three-story science/laboratory building, Marram Hall, opened in 1991, and the Savannah Center, which houses an art gallery, auditorium, health club and bookstore, opened in February 2000. In June 2006, the University dedicated the new Dunes Medical / Professional Building. Adjacent to the campus is a building for divisional, departmental, and faculty offices. Two other structures contain university offices, research offices, and campus support services. There are also a greenhouse and physical plant facilities.

Maps and Directions

IU Northwest is conveniently located in Gary, Indiana. We're easy to get to—just minutes from I-90, I-80/94, I-65, US-12, and US-20. Almost 75 percent of our students commute from Lake County with other students coming from Porter, Jasper, LaPorte, Newton, Pulaski, and Starke Counties.

Let us help you get here and find your way around once you arrive by looking at our maps and directions.

The Library

The IU Northwest library provides access to multiple information sources and services in support of student learning and faculty research. Along with the book collections of 250,000 volumes and 250,000 government publications, the library has access to 150 online abstract or full-text journal databases, an online catalog of all IU libraries, online catalogs of local public and university libraries, 30,000 electronic journals, online encyclopedias, and biography and statistics databases. The building's variety of seating, attractive furniture and colorfully decorated walls, vistas presented by many windows, with Information Commons, CyberCafe, and Coffeehouse Café, combine to provide a pleasant, comfortable place for individual and group study, research, and socializing.  The Library has a Reference Service help Desk staffed the 7 days per week the Library is open. Special purpose areas include the Calumet Regional Archives, the Northwest Indiana Center for Data and Analysis, a Geographic Information System (GIS) Lab, the Federal Government Depository Collection, the Lake County Central Law Library and  the Community Grants Information Collection. Through the IU Northwest library, students have access to the 7 million volumes and 26 million other materials of the other IU libraries. Books and journal articles in the Bloomington, Indianapolis, and other regional campus libraries can be obtained quickly for students and faculty through the IU Northwest System Services (Interlibrary Loan) Office.

The Calumet Regional Archives collects, preserves, and makes available records of local organizations and individuals that document the history of Indiana's Calumet Region (Lake and Porter Counties) for use by students, scholars, and the general public. There are more than 5,000 cubic feet of these documents, preserved for the education and enjoyment of future generations. The Northwest Indiana Center for Data and Analysis provides regional and subregional economic, demographic, health, environmental, and other data to businesses and nonprofit and community organizations. The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Lab provides software and assistance for creating spatial maps. The Community Grants Information Collection and Foundation Center cooperating collection provide materials and databases for grantseeking.