The project was part of a city initiative to revitalize the residential development in Hyde Park just north of the University of Chicago.

Following the opening of the University of Chicago in 1892 and the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, the neighborhood became known as a retreat for the wealthy intellectual community.

The area around 55th Street and Lake Park Avenue, near where the University Apartments stand today, became a haven for taverns and gambling houses, who were banned from operating near the former fairgrounds.

Thomas Wright, the Head of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, and the Social Order Committee of the 57th Street Meeting of Friends met.

Although the university at first refused to engage in any community-building activities, the promotion of chancellor Lawrence A. Kimpton prompted a change in philosophy.

The three groups decided to form the South East Chicago Commission in 1952 with the goals of increasing police protection, promoting residential stability, and enforcing building codes.

Davarian Baldwin, in his study of the report, summarizes: "physically deteriorating but white‐occupied Hyde Park neighborhood blocks were marked for rehabilitation, while majority black areas became the site targeted for clearance and university acquisition” [4] The organization was able to convince state and federal legislators to provide funding for urban renewal projects.

[5] Zeckendorf and Pei had worked together since 1948 and had previously designed other large-scale housing developments, including the Kips Bay Towers in New York City.

[1] It is a non-contributing property to the Hyde Park – Kenwood Historic District, as it was only eighteen years old at the time of the designation.

[3] The University Apartments are on a traffic island on 55th Street stretching two-and-a-half blocks between Harper Avenue on the east and Ridgewood Court on the West.

The University Apartments are in a high density residential community; most of the buildings immediately surrounding the complex were part of Weese's rowhouse project and were built around the same time.