Scaled for chil­dren, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go Devel­op­ment Cen­ter – Drex­el is a con­tem­po­rary and play­ful build­ing for kids that is an invit­ing and trans­par­ent build­ing that nes­tles into its site. 

Locat­ed on a devel­op­ing edge of the med­ical cam­pus the cen­ter serves fam­i­lies of the Uni­ver­si­ty and neigh­bor­ing com­mu­ni­ty with admin­is­tra­tive spaces, a mul­ti­pur­pose room, and nine class­rooms for infants, tod­dlers, young preschool­ers, and preschool­ers. Near­ly four mil­lion stu­dents nation­wide are rais­ing chil­dren, pre­sent­ing new chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties that has encour­aged Uni­ver­si­ties to make more fam­i­ly-friend­ly spaces and resources. 

Weav­ing indoor and out­door learn­ing envi­ron­ments, each class­room has direct access to an out­door play­ground and abun­dant day­light (with large win­dows and solatubes).

Graph­ic film cov­ers large expans­es of glass to pre­vent bird col­li­sions while allow­ing nat­ur­al light to seep in with dap­pled pat­terns. The LEED Gold build­ing deployed many cost-effec­tive strate­gies to increase per­for­mance: high-insu­la­tion enve­lope, max­i­mized day­light­ing and views, light­ing con­trols with occu­pan­cy sen­sors, white reflec­tive and veg­e­ta­tive roof, low flow plumb­ing fix­tures, healthy mate­ri­als, and ener­gy effi­cient HVAC systems.

On a cam­pus known for com­bin­ing his­toric build­ings and inno­v­a­tive archi­tec­ture, the Child Devel­op­ment Cen­ter-Drex­el is an inspir­ing, active, and stim­u­lat­ing space for devel­op­ing minds. 

Client: Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go, man­aged by Bright Hori­zons
Pro­gram: Ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion cen­ter
Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion: LEED Gold
Size: 13,000 sqft
Cost: $4,500,000

Col­lab­o­ra­tive Part­ners:
Good­friend Magrud­er (Struc­tur­al Engi­neer)
Primera Engi­neers (MEP Engi­neer)
Pep­per Con­struc­tion (Gen­er­al Contractor)

Pho­tog­ra­phy Cred­its: © Kate Joyce Studios