Sit­ed on a frag­ment of a city block, this pub­lic school serves Chicago’s Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood. 

The gym­na­si­um, cafe­te­ria, mul­ti-pur­pose room, and library are housed in two-sto­ry pavil­ions, con­nect­ed to a class­room block. Exu­ber­ant col­ors, tex­tures, and forms rein­force the val­ue a school brings to soci­ety; con­vey­ing excite­ment about edu­ca­tion. The pyramid’s illu­mi­nat­ed apex becomes a bea­con for the community.

Inte­ri­or accent col­ors change as stu­dents progress through their edu­ca­tion. From bright and bold to under­stat­ed and thought­ful; reflect­ing growth and matu­ri­ty. In all class­rooms, the basic scheme is nat­ur­al wood and white walls; allow­ing stu­dents and teach­ers to uti­lize their space as a per­son­al can­vas of exploration.

The result is a build­ing made of hum­ble mate­ri­als that exude so much excite­ment that bore­dom has nowhere to hide.

Client: Chica­go Pub­lic Build­ing Com­mis­sion, Chica­go Pub­lic Schools
Pro­gram: K to 8^th Grade, Pub­lic School
Size: 64,000 sqft
Cost: $5,600,000

Select­ed Awards/​Honors:
Brick in Archi­tec­ture, Brick Insti­tute of Amer­i­ca and the Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects, 1997.
Award of Dis­tinc­tion, Illi­nois Asso­ci­a­tion of School Boards, 1996.
Dis­tin­guished Build­ing Award, Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects Chica­go, 1996.
Inte­ri­or Archi­tec­ture Award, Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects Chica­go, 1994.
AIA Hon­or Award for Archi­tec­ture, 1994.

Project Fea­tures:
Metrop­o­lis – ​“15 Build­ings that Embody Chicago’s Post­mod­ern Moment”

Col­lab­o­ra­tive Part­ners:
Bel­ing Con­sul­tants Engi­neer­ing
Martin/​Martin Struc­tur­al Engineers

Pho­tog­ra­phy Cred­it: © Steve Hall, Hedrich Bless­ing Photographers