Page 44 - spaces4learning, Spring 2021

spaces4learning BUILDING BLUEPRINTS
BUILDING BLUEPRINTS VERTICAL LEARNING
Chicago School Moves into Downtown High-Rise
By Brandon Hall
SEEKING TO BUILD ON THE SUCCESS OF ITS CAMPUS on the Northwest Side, Intrinsic Schools sought to expand its innovative learning model to more City of Chicago high-school students. After a multi-year search that analyzed potential
sites across multiple neighborhoods from financial, geopolitical and feasibility perspectives, results pointed to an unusual and innovative solution: the new campus needed to be in Chicago's loop, the city's civic and financial center.
Preliminary space plans identified 79 W. Monroe, the former Bell Federal Savings Building, as the Intrinsic Down- town's new home. Known for its iconic bell sign with weather prediction, the high-rise was completed in 1906 during Chi- cago's early high-rise building boom. The new school occupies the 2nd to 6th floors of this 14-story building.
Leveraging Location for Equity
The most significant opportunity afforded by the Downtown Campus is access to almost every city neighborhood. Each line of the elevated train (the “L”) has a station within blocks, and express bus lines from all directions stop within steps of its front door. The school is open to all Chicago students, and in its first two years, it has enrolled has students from 74 of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. Providing equitable access to high-quality educational options is possible by leveraging this robust transportation network.
The central location also allows Intrinsic Schools to form strong partnerships with adjacent downtown institutions. For ex- ample, the school offers students the chance to take college cours- es at the City Colleges of Chicago's Harold Washington campus, located only seven blocks away. Other high schools provide the same connection, but few can offer the ability to combine sched- ules. Downtown Chicago's many cultural and civic institutions are within blocks. A visit to the Art Institute or City Hall could occur within a class period rather than a full-day field trip.
Internships, mentorships and office tours can take place weekly. Asking a professional to spend their lunch hour describing their ca- reer path and profession went from a significant time commitment to an errand. The hurdles to creating unique exposure and diverse experiences for the students have been significantly lowered.
School Design Goes Vertical
One of the most significant project challenges was turning five floors of office space into a cohesive school campus. The spaces inherited contained relics and scars of over a century of modifi- cations and adaptions to suit former tenants. Figuring out how to tactically celebrate the building's history while hiding some of its imperfections and installing modern systems to support 21st-century learning took a thoughtful approach. Code/existing conditions: An early challenge was how
PHOTOS CREDIT KENDALL MCCAUGHERTY - HALL + MERRICK
44 SPRING 2021 | spaces4learning.com