Description

This new education facility takes the form of the given site being triangular in plan. The urban location ensues in a restricted site; however, the triangular form is also intended to make it stand out in this transitional area on the edge of the city. The classrooms wrap around the inner open core, an exciting multi-height space which is called the ‘Family Room’. The room’s two-storey high walls graphically display the school’s educational philosophy, ‘A Disciplined Life’, in both English and Spanish. This core philosophy encourages students, teachers and outside visitors to reflect on the ethical commitments of all members of the school community. It is a central organising principle of the school’s belief system, its curriculum and its planning. The architecture is intended to support this ethos and be a physical expression of the Charter School mission, that is to provide working class students with a rigorous education to prepare them for life in a changing and competitive world.

However, the new building is also exciting, an expression of something more optimistic than the inscriptions suggest. Although the building uses what may be considered to be industrial materials, metal cladding panels with an exposed steel frame on the inside, its expression is more high tech than industrial. Windows are either long and horizontal for classrooms or vertical with dramatically angled reveals around the main entrances, staircases and multi-height internal spaces. Its signature design signals to the community at large that learning is a paramount civic priority. The architects describe it as ‘participating in an architectural conversation with Chicago’s commercial and cultural landmarks,’ and the illustration of the school in its wider context shows clearly how the new facility emphasises the role of education in the civic landscape, standing out as another architectural landmark in this most architecturally minded of cities.

The initial planning process took place in a workshop format with a series of presentations to the local community to illuminate current trends in education. In­tegral to these workshops were many formal and informal discussions with the community regarding a disciplined life, the culture of the school and how the building should be a physical embodiment of these important concepts. The result is a new building full of light and space, which reflects the unique culture and philosophy of the new school. Constructed on a limited budget, this is a civic building which stands in contrast to much 20th century school planning locating schools on green field sites distant from the residential areas. Here the intention was to create a school right at the heart of its community, a focus for future generations.

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Originally published in: Mark Dudek, Schools and Kindergartens: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2015.