CHICAGO—Wheeler Kearns Architects has completed its multi-phase, 75,000-square-foot renovation and expansion of Great Lakes Academy, a K-8 charter school in Chicago’s South Chicago neighborhood. This ambitious adaptive reuse project doubled the overall size of the campus by renovating an unused building adjacent to the existing academic building, connecting the two through a contemporary single-story glass link.

Located at 8401 S. Saginaw Ave, Great Lakes Academy is just 10 miles from downtown Chicago. This area was the center of Chicago’s booming steel industry from the beginning of the twentieth century through the 1950s when closures led to decades of disinvestment. The project revitalized most of a city block, building on the existing three-story brick masonry school that anchors the campus. Sustainability is considered throughout the project, minimizing new construction while leveraging existing building stock and implementing energy-efficient strategies.

The design combines old and new, with the contemporary glass link mediating between the solidity of the historic school and church buildings which date back to 1911 and 1952, respectively. This intervention is open and lightweight, with high-performance floor-to-ceiling glass, thermally broken curtainwall framing systems, and internally lit skylights filling the space with natural light. Atop, a green roof will reduce groundwater runoff, improve building thermal insulation, lessen the urban heat island, and offer enjoyable glimpses of green from above and below.

The former Church of St. Mary Magdalene, which closed in 2015, now serves as a flexible multipurpose space. The south half of the building is both a gym and performance space, with a regulation-sized basketball court, volleyball court, climbing wall, stage, and green room. The north half of the building, separated by a sliding curtain, houses a cafeteria that will serve over 600 healthy breakfasts and lunches each day, prepared in the commercial kitchen. Other new facilities throughout the campus include a visual arts room, library, maker space, and an artificial turf field with seating.

Students and the community consider the updated exterior of the campus a vital part of the Great Lakes Academy. A landscaped courtyard welcomes students and visitors into the new entrance. Outdoor spaces around the campus are designed for immersive activity, supporting learning through encouraging exploration and incorporating natural elements like boulders from a nearby Midwestern quarry. Outdoor seating allows teachers to hold classes outside and encourages families to socialize and play before and after school.

Wheeler Kearns Architects designed the expanded campus to be used as efficiently and extensively as possible, including on weekends, evenings, and vacations. Since the staff can secure the academic spaces with doors at the link, the gymnasium, kitchen, and restrooms can quickly convert to host community programs, extracurricular activities, or professional development conferences after school hours.

Emily Ray, lead project architect, remarks that “Working with a dedicated team to inject new life into this underutilized city block has been a rewarding experience. Our design aimed to celebrate the architectural and cultural legacies of the site, and our shared hope is that the expanded campus will serve the Great Lakes Academy students and act as a beacon for the community.”

Katherine Myers-Crum, Great Lakes Academy Founder and Executive Director, comments that “We are so proud of this newly renovated campus and all the resources and opportunities that it brings to our scholars, their families, and the surrounding community. It is our hope that this campus can start a movement to invest in and revitalize the southeast side of Chicago, a community with a rich legacy that is full of incredible people and ideas. WKA could not have been a better partner to work on this project with; they understand both function, aesthetics, and value and were highly collaborative throughout our partnership.”

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CHICAGO—The Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School expansion by Wheeler Kearns Architects was presented with three Design Excellence Awards from AIA Chicago at its virtual ceremony on Friday November 13. The project received a Distinguished Building Award and two Divine Detail Awards, for the Tallit (exterior brick) and the Makom Rina (sacred space). The firm’s design expresses the building’s unique identity, celebrating its religious and cultural heritage, while providing an innovative and sustainable learning environment.

Located in the Lakeview neighborhood, the school and adjacent synagogue had shared the same facilities — including an entrance  — since 1948. The project reorients the school towards a newly constructed plaza, loggia and vestibule, offering a new secure and welcoming entrance. Inside, there is a focus on visibility and connection, with transparent glass walls, open spaces, and plentiful daylight creating a welcoming and intuitive environment. The building also has a small footprint, with interventions such as an insulated cavity wall to minimize thermal shorting, a solar array producing power for the building, deep overhangs that shield the generous glazing at the ground floor, and the use of recycled, renewable, low VOC materials.

Jewish principles and ideas are incorporated into the design itself. For example, the light-colored brick wraps the exterior just as the tallit (prayer shawl) helps one to create a sacred space for reflection, learning, and prayer. The heart of the addition is a curved masonry and glass sacred space – the Makom Rina, or ‘Place of Joy’. Twelve exposed curved masonry walls represent the twelve original tribes of Israel, with the wythes of brick angled to create a pattern that evokes the star of David. Interior head joints are raked open so that participants can place prayers into the joints between the units, like in the ancient western wall of Jerusalem.

Bulley & Andrews served as the general contractor on the project, which was completed in 2019, and Thornton Tomasetti was the structural engineer.

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