Unique Impressions
May 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Mike Kennedy
Imagination and creative design can transform unlikely sites into successful learning environments.
The Atlanta Academy; Architect: Cooper Carry Photographer: ©2007 Jim Roof Creative
For much of the 20
The original purpose of the Power House, as the facility has been known since it was built in 1905, ended a few years ago when it was decommissioned. But the days of dormancy won't last long for the edifice. In 2009, extensive renovations will be completed, and students and teachers will transform the building into the Henry Ford Academy: Power House Charter High School.
Educators especially those operating charter and private schools searching for spaces suitable to house their schools often turn to facilities that at first glance might seem an odd match for classroom space. As construction costs climb and the availability of traditional sites dwindles, administrators and architects are able to envision education facilities in improbable settings whether it's an old power plant, a shuttered shoe factory or a vacant shopping mall.
The Power House is one example among many in which educators, architects and community members come together to provide critically needed education space, give new life to unwanted or obsolete structures, and stretch the definition of what can be an effective and inspiring learning environment.
The only limit is our imagination, says Kristin Dean, president of Homan Square, which is redeveloping the old Sears complex.
Powerful history
As the world's largest retailer in the early 1900s, Sears needed a sprawling campus to house its headquarters and store the mountain of goods it mailed to its catalog customers across the nation. The complex it built in Chicago's Lawndale neighborhood included a mail-order plant with more than 3 million square feet of space, rail spurs to bring merchandise in and out of the campus, and numerous other buildings, including the Power House.
The retailer moved its headquarters to downtown Chicago in 1973 when it opened the world's tallest building, the Sears Tower. By 1988, Sears had ended most of its operations at the West Side campus, and the neighborhood, steeped in poverty and population decline, desperately needed a boost. The company's top executive, Ed Brennan, sought out developer Charlie Shaw to come up with a plan for revitalizing the area using the solidly built Sears structures as a foundation.
The Homan Square developers brought in new housing, a community center, health services and other amenities. They had determined that because of the Power House's placement on the National Register of Historic Places, and because of the nature of the building itself, its best chance at finding a successful new purpose would be as an educational or non-profit facility.
Converging paths
In 2005, as the Homan Square folks were looking for a Power House tenant, the Chicago public school system unveiled a reform plan called Renaissance 2010 that called for opening 100 new schools in the city by 2010. Meanwhile, in Dearborn, Mich., the Henry Ford Learning Institute was operating the Henry Ford Academy, a charter high school on the grounds of the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village. The institute was looking to expand to other cities and replicate the success it was seeing in Dearborn.
Dean says she talked with Chicago school officials about the Power House, and they encouraged her to get in touch with the Henry Ford program.
They came in to look at the building and said, We love this, Dean says.
Once those involved agreed to proceed, the building had to undergo a metamorphosis. Even before the school plan was suggested, the developers spent some $2 million to remove asbestos and lead paint from the building. The facility was four stories high, but to accommodate the immense equipment required to generate electricity, heating and cooling, there was only one floor. The renovated facility will have just one floor on the building's north side. It will be a gathering place called the Great Hall, where students can assemble for special activities or the community can host events after school hours.
It's a grand space, says Dean. It's open, voluminous and light-filled. It's not going to be used just 9 to 3. It's going to be in use long after students have finished classes.
On the south side of the building, workers are filling in the space with floors that will triple the building's square footage to about 95,000. That side of the building will house classrooms and labs, says Dean. The basement of the facility, with 14-foot ceilings, will house a cafeteria and other functions. The developers had expected to be able to have more space in the basement, but much of the area is taken up by thick slabs of concrete that were needed to support the heavy equipment that sat above.
But as a result, there are a lot of different alcoves that could be used for dark rooms, sound studios or lecture halls, says Dean.
Teaching history
In converting the facility to a school, the developers are preserving many of the features of the power plant to give students an understanding of what went on in the building and why it has historical significance. A huge crane that was used to haul heavy equipment will remain in the Great Hall; Dean envisions the school hanging a large projection screen for films or other multimedia presentations. High above ground level in the facility is a large chain-powered conveyor belt that was used to deliver bins of coal to furnaces and take the resulting ashes away. The school intends to preserve part of the system to give students an understanding of how the Power House functioned.
After the plant was decommissioned, Homan Square officials brought in the longtime chief engineer and videotaped him as he walked through the facility and explained the function of each piece of equipment.
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