Locat­ed on a reclaimed recy­cling site in a 27 acre park, the senior and com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter recalls his­toric park struc­tures. The design approach seeks to visu­al­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly min­i­mize the loss of finite green space by cre­at­ing a trans­par­ent pavil­ion-like build­ing that blends inte­ri­or and exterior.

The cen­ter has three com­po­nents: a glass enclosed class­room wing shield­ed by a wood lou­vered screen; a mul­ti­pur­pose gymnasium/​theater con­struct­ed of translu­cent fiber­glass pan­els; and office/​sup­port spaces clad in brick. 

These three com­po­nents form a court­yard con­tain­ing an enabling gar­den. This out­door ​“class­room” pro­vides addi­tion­al space for yoga, paint­ing, gar­den­ing and tai chi.

Nat­ur­al mate­ri­als were select­ed for dura­bil­i­ty, acces­si­bil­i­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The wood lou­vers are built from sas­safras, a weath­er resis­tant sus­tain­ably har­vest­ed species that allows day­light while pro­tect­ing occu­pants from glare and heat.

Client: City of Evanston
Pro­gram: Com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter
Size: 25,500 sqft
Cost: $6,000,000

Select­ed Awards/​Honors:
Frank Lloyd Wright Hon­or Award, Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects Illi­nois. 2007.
Inte­ri­or Archi­tec­ture Award, Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects Chica­go. 2003.
New Con­struc­tion Award, Design Evanston. 2003.
Mer­it Award, Chica­go Build­ing Con­gress. 2003.

Col­lab­o­ra­tive Part­ners:
C.E. Ander­son & Asso­ciates (Struc­tur­al Engi­neer)
Jack Weiss Asso­ciates (Sig­nage)
Ramm Asso­ciates (Mechan­i­cal & Elec­tri­cal Engi­neer)
Ter­ra Engi­neer­ing (Civ­il Engi­neer)
The Meyne Com­pa­ny (Gen­er­al Con­trac­tor)
Wolff Clements Asso­ciates (Land­scape Architect)

Pho­tog­ra­phy Cred­it: © Steve Hall, Hedrich Blessing