Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Kennedy Elementary School: Addition and Renovations to Inspire 21st-Century Learning

  • 09/01/17

Kennedy ElementaryDLA Architects is currently leading classroom renovations at Kennedy Elementary School in Schiller Park, Ill. The school will be redesigned and remodeled to accommodate progressive 21st-century learning and the technology that accompanies it.

The ultimate goal of the addition and renovation is to encourage active learning, with easy to rearrange furniture and break out spaces for small-group collaboration. The redesign will also offer more opportunity for educators and students to be collaborative and experience hands-on learning. Transparent walls will be implemented to provide further security while simultaneously putting learning on display.

“Our primary focus when partnering with educational institutions is to stand behind our philosophy ‘Form Follows Learning’ and implementing it to fully meet the needs of 21st-century learners,” states Carrie Matlock, president of DLA Architects. 

The multi-phase project includes an addition geared toward transforming traditional learning to 21st-century learning and helps to solve capacity and code issues. The preschool classrooms were completed in Fall 2016 and the remaining addition was completed in Winter 2016. 

The project included extensive stormwater management improvements with the installation of a massive detention tank StormTrap under the fields to hold rainwater and release it slowly back to the city’s system, as well as completely rerouting bus and parent drop off/pickup to ease congestion and improve safety. 

Major interior remodeling of the Second grade classrooms will accommodate current and future digital learning for students, and was completed at the end of summer 2017. This also included a complete renovation of the Kitchen to accommodate services to the kids and give them more time to eat. 

Interior remodeling and redesign of the First grade classrooms and Main Office are currently scheduled for Summer 2018. Remodeling of Kindergarten classrooms is scheduled for Summer 2019.

DLA Architects is a full-service architectural firm located in Itasca, Ill., and partners with educational institutions to fulfil the needs of 21st-century learning. The firm has provided comprehensive architectural/planning services for 68 school districts representing 197 elementary schools, 80 middle schools and 70 high schools. 

For more information on DLA Architects’ current projects, visit www.dla-ltd.com.

Featured

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Planning with Clarity: Using AI to Make Better Campus Decisions, Not Just Better Designs

    Higher education leaders are being asked to make increasingly high-stakes decisions about campus facilities amid greater uncertainty than ever before. Social and economic pressures, shifting enrollment, and evolving learning models compete with growing deferred maintenance needs to strain even the most robust infrastructure budgets.

  • Virginia Tech Tops Out New College of Engineering Building

    Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., recently celebrated the topping out of Mitchell Hall, which will soon stand as the largest College of Engineering building on campus, according to a news release. The university partnered with Skanska on the 285,500-square-foot facility, which has an expected completion date of winter 2028.

  • Children walking along bright school corridor with motion blur

    How Next-Gen Design Is Reshaping the Student Experience

    The environments where students learn play a crucial role in shaping their growth in and out of the classroom. By centering design on well-being, flexibility, and purpose, districts can ensure their facilities remain vibrant community assets for many years to come.