Walter Payton High School, Chicago

A 20 million dollar addition to Walter Payton College Prep, a Chicago Public School (CPS), increases the capacity of this top-performing school by almost 40%. The 49,000 square foot, three-story structure adds 14 classrooms, a multi-purpose ‘black box’ performance & teaching space, student lounge/café (overflow for the cafeteria), additional administration space, a gymnasium, and a fitness room. Specialty classrooms include a dance studio, music rehearsal rooms, art classroom, drivers-ed classroom, and a special education suite. There was also some renovation work in the existing school including improvements to the auditorium, modifications to administration space and the renovation of two classrooms (one converted to a science lab).

A tight site led to some unique design constraints. The gymnasium sits on the third floor with extensive sound mitigation to the floor below and storm-water management is handled by storage vaults located under the the structure. The building massing and a change in brick color express the gym volume and the subtle angle of the ‘gym box’ matches that of the existing school’s atrium. Site work includes a narrow plaza on the south side of the building that doubles as a fire lane and is flanked by a bio-swale. The structure consists of a steel frame with a cavity wall skin composed of brick veneer over light gauge studs and sits on 28 caissons which extend down to over 80 feet below grade. The project included substantial soil mitigation and the design incorporates a number of sustainable features and achieved LEED Silver.

• 2017 Chicago Building Congress (CBC) Merit Award for projects under 55 million dollars.

Role

Project Manager from the Design Development phase to the completion of the project. Led the in-house and consultant project delivery effort and was the main contact with the Public Building Commission. This project included enhanced Construction Administration where I was on site for a few hours each day (almost daily) for the duration of the construction.

• Firm: KOO LLC

More

For a profile of Chicago Public School’s Edgebrook Elementary Project, Go Here. For information on other educational and related work (including childcare, libraries and other civic projects), go to my Projects Page.