Little Village Academy
Little Village Academy is located in the center of Chicago’s Mexican community. A minimal site, 400 feet by 120 feet, dictated an efficient plan organized around a central stair. As the spiritual heart of the school, the stair features an inhabitable sundial which casts the time on a vibrant yellow wall; ensuring students are never late for class.
Built at a cost comparable to the prototype building Chicago Public Schools had long been constructing, Little Village Academy breaks many notions of lacking individualism while deploying extensive use of light, shading mechanisms, natural ventilation. and optimized systems.
Materials throughout produce a dynamic civic building embedded in its context that unites two cultures.
Client: Chicago Public Building Commission, Chicago Public Schools
Program: K to 5th Grade, Public School
Size: 68,000 sqft
Cost: $7,000,000
Selected Awards/Honors:
AIA Honor Award for Architecture, 2002.
AIA Honor Award for Interior Architecture, 1999.
Architectural Excellence in Community Design, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, 1998.
Distinguished Building, American Institute of Architects Chicago, 1997.
Interior Architecture Award, American Institute of Architects Chicago, 1997.
Collaborative Partners:
D’Escoto, Inc.
Salse Engineering Associates
Cini-Little International
Photography Credit: © Steve Hall, Hedrich Blessing Photographers
The three story central stair tower marks the school’s entry and is animated by a sundial. Views to and through the space connect students to the neighborhood; and the neighborhood to the school.
It would be hard to find a public building that packs more architecture onto a constrained urban site than Little Village Academy in Chicago.
Clifford Pearson for Architectural Record
Light serves as a primary material for the building. The library has a clerestoried reading room and the science lab a greenhouse bay window. These interior functions are expressed on the exterior through white volumes that protrude from the brick mass.
Vibrant and subtle patterns connect interior and exterior. As the cafeteria curves toward the playground the surface springs to life with a sunburst. At its epicenter is the sundial stair; the schools functional and spiritual heart.
Little Village Academy is a stunning creative essay that uplifts both the spirits of its students and the outlook for its workaday neighborhood. It puts a new and powerfully dynamic spin on the Chicago tradition of the big, bold school-house.
Blair Kamin, Pulitzer Prize Winning Architecture Critic
Surrounded by commercial and residential properties, the school embraces its gritty Chicago context; celebrating the enthusiasm of learning through color, texture, and a spirit of happiness.
