Architects:JGMA

Area :18000 ft²

Year :2019

Photographs :Tom Rossiter

Landscape Engineering :Site Design Group

MEP :RTM Associates

Structural :Goodfriend Magruder

General Contractor :GMA Construction Group

Design Principal : Juan Moreno

Project Manager : Dan Spore

Program / Use / Building Function : Early Learning Center / Kindergarten

City : Chicago

Country : United States

Established in 1898, Gads Hill Center is a non-profit youth education and family resource center located in Chicago. They currently serve families in the neighborhoods of Pilsen, North Lawndale, and Little Village by providing learning support and educational enrichment, early childhood development, and out-of-school care for children. More simply put, their mission is to create opportunities for children and their families to build a better life through education and access to resources.

When Gads Hill Centers expressed an interest in expanding their services in the neighborhood of Brighton Park, we jumped at the chance to be part of making their dreams a reality. Early in the process, JGMA helped to identify and evaluate existing, unutilized structures with the potential to become their new Early Learning Center. When an existing building on the corner of S. Archer Avenue and S. Whipple St. was selected as the final location, we eagerly worked to create a bold new vision as expressive and empowering as the client.

The existing building, having been cobbled together over varying decades, is a patchwork of dissimilar brick and styles. At some point in the past, an adjacent building had been built over the property lines, resulting in sections of the property that are only accessible from the neighboring businesses. How does one begin to untangle the challenges of so much “organic” development?

We began by embracing the eclectics of the existing facades, unifying them into a backdrop to which we insert a fun pattern of projected, box-windows. The new windows create an exterior expression of the carefree activities happening inside. And rather than making complex, costly plans to rejoin the lost corner of the property, we simply removed the structure, turning the area into an outdoor courtyard and playground.

Gads Hill Center is a great example of how buildings of Chicago’s past should not be demolished solely because uses change. This early learning center respects the legacy of this Brighton Park community and the buildings along Archer Ave and uses that history and legacy as a springboard to what an exciting future could look like by not erasing the past and just building upon it.