Location and Local Culture
Located on a 37-acre wooded campus in suburban River Forest, Illinois, and just 10 miles west of downtown Chicago, Dominican University provides students and alumnae/i an accessible and welcoming location and superb access to a wealth of career, intellectual and cultural opportunities.
The village of River Forest is closely tied to the larger neighboring community of Oak Park. The Oak Park-River Forest community boasts a strong and diverse population of 60,000 with top-notch schools, a robust housing market and a vibrant local economy.
The significant architectural designs located in River Forest include the Winslow House by Frank Lloyd Wright. Nationally renowned for its architecture since construction began in the early 1900s, the Dominican campus was designed by famed architect Ralph Adams Cram, who also drew the plans for Princeton University, West Point Military Academy and Chicago’s landmark Rockefeller Chapel. The University, which includes the Priory Campus located approximately a mile east of the main campus, has maintained its signature Gothic look through expansion over the past century.
Dominican is deeply rooted in the Chicago area and serves as a gateway to the city’s rich opportunities for students and faculty. We maintain relationships and formal partnerships with the metro area’s top corporations, medical centers, nonprofits and cultural institutions. We are 20 minutes from downtown Chicago on the Green Line. And we are a 20-minute drive from O’Hare International Airport, one of the world’s busiest air travel hubs.