Richard Riley Award
Community Learning Centers for the 21st Century
Presented by:
Little Village Lawndale High School
School Demographics
- Location: Chicago, IL
- Community Type: Urban
- School Population: 1,400
- Grade Range: 9-12
- Free/Reduced Lunch: 50%
- School District: Chicago Public Schools
- School District Population: 435,000
Little Village Lawndale High School Campus opened its doors for four hundred students in the fall of 2005. It is now a 1,400-student neighborhood high school serving a predominantly disadvantaged Hispanic and African American community. The facility features four autonomous small schools of 350 students, each with its own principal and staff, while sharing athletic teams, a library, and community services, including adult education programs, a health clinic, and after-school programming.
The four-school campus includes a Multicultural Arts High School, a World Language High School, a Social Justice High School, and Infinity: Math, Science, and Technology High School. Each of the four schools has a university partner including the Art Institute of Chicago and Roosevelt University. The goal is for young people graduate with 60 hours of college credit.
Seven Principles of Design
Built at a cost of $63 million the new high school was designed by the architecture team of OWP/P and Gonzalez Hasbrouck which crafted seven principles of design to help frame the design process including the demand that the new school: reflect the needs and identity of the community; enhance the teaching and learning and accommodate the needs of all learners (students, parents and other members of the community); serve as a center of community; result from a planning/design process involving all stakeholders; provide for health, safety and security; make effective use of all available resources; allow for flexibility and ADA adaptability to changing needs.
Working with local residents, the architects also developed a design concept based on a creation story from Aztec mythology using the elements of fire, earth, water and wind. The architects distributed disposable cameras to the committee members who then took pictures of the neighborhood. The images became inspirations for the design. For example, the wide, open front entrance is based on pictures of Mexican churches, which have large plazas in front. Community input also led to the decision to move the main entrance from the south side of the building, after realizing that most students would come from the north.
Creating a National Model
The community effort to design the new facility also led it to become a national model when the community the Little Village community focused on developing the new high school using a small schools model. This provided an exciting opportunity for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to lead the national discussion on how to build new high schools as small schools. According to CPS, the facility was the first Chicago high school and one of the first in the nation to be designed and using the model.
The school was built on a 16.5 acre site and the building itself is 280,000 square feet. Total project cost came to $63 million of which $48 million was dedicated to construction. While each school is independent the building is made cohesive and accessible to the community by the shared facilities located at its spine which includes a competition and practice gymnasium, a distance learning center, performing and visual arts facilities, 25-meter pool, a 500-seat auditorium, a cafeteria and library. The school draws the majority of its students – 70 percent from the largely Hispanic Little Village neighborhood and another 30 percent from the African American North Lawndale community.
Although the Little Village Lawndale High School is not LEED rated, principles of smart growth and sustainability were considered during the design process. Key sustainable design elements include storm water management systems, a green roof, efficient mechanical systems, enhanced day lighting and shared community facilities. CPS expects these details to save the school money on operating costs and total life cycle costs.