Project Description
The partnership of a land-rich, resource-poor, existing school facility with a well-capitalized, socially entrepreneurial charter organization results in a low-cost, low-rise structure that showcases landscape, from the interior and exterior, in one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. The new addition to Hansberry College Prep offers a palette of classrooms arranged around rustic courtyards that bring natural light and seasonal color indoors. Design features throughout the building reinforce the school’s goal of preparing students from under-resourced communities to graduate from top colleges and universities. The new facility connects to its South Side neighborhood in several ways. An original two-story gymnasium structure from the defunct parish school, renovated and re-roofed with spray foam insulation for energy efficiency, anchors the new school and offers students and church members a state-of-the-art athletic facility. The precast concrete addition, built to the north of the gymnasium, includes three classroom wings, divided by courtyards that open onto South Aberdeen Street. These courtyards, featuring different species of hardy trees, shrubs, and flowers, offer seasonal color not only to students and faculty but also to residents. Student lockers bear names of prestigious institutions of higher learning instead of numbers. A student assigned to the Princeton locker will learn not only the university’s name and location but also the average academic and extracurricular credentials of admitted first-year students. Similarly, maps along corridor walls display the names of colleges attended by school faculty. Alumni names and college selections will continually enhance this display. Throughout the innovative school design, one message to students is clear: If you identify your goals and work hard to achieve them, you will succeed and that the school and its community believe in their abilities.