Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Gemini Middle School Reveal New Changes, Continues Construction

  • By Yvonne Marquez
  • 09/13/19

Gemini Middle School, outside of Chicago, debuted several changes as they began this school year. Formerly known as Gemini Junior High, the school unveiled new renovations as they welcomed their doors to more than 1,000 students from 6th to 8th grade.

The new student commons at Gemini Middle School is filled with natural light.

The expansion and remodeling cost $33 million and is expected to be fully completed by the end of the year. The middle school renovations were designed by DLA Architects.

“We’re really excited about the new spaces that we have created that are going to provide fun, exciting and collaborative learning opportunities for students,” Principal Lewis Roberts told the Chicago Tribune.

“We’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about how students learn...the 21st century learner, and what students are going to need to prepare them not only for high school, but for life skills.”

Gemini Middle School, outside of Chicago, debuted several changes as they began this school year including an expanded cafeteria with learning stairs.

Features of the school include:

  • A new fitness center;
  • An expanded cafeteria with learning stairs;
  • An instrumental music suite;
  • An interior courtyard;
  • An auxiliary multi-purpose room with a stage; and
  • Kitchens for home economics.

The entrance will have the school mascot, along with blue and gold school colors, on the windows. The new student commons is filled with natural light. There are more writable surfaces located throughout the school to encourage expression and learning. In addition, there are numerous plugs to charge student-issued Chromebooks.

Upgrades to the middle school began when East Maine School District 63’s launched their master plan in December 2016. More than 100,000 square feet of space was part of the upgrades.

 

About the Author

Yvonne Marquez is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Chartwells Launches Campus Dining Evaluation Framework

    Contract food-service management provider Chartwells Higher Education recently announced the launch of BLUEPRINT, according to a news release. The evaluation framework was designed to provide a data-driven and customizable roadmap towards optimizing campus dining services and, by extension, the student experience.

  • school building with glowing circuit board patterns

    AI Is Coming to Schools — But Most School Buildings Still Run on Institutional Memory

    As school districts race to introduce AI into classrooms, administration, and curriculum planning, another conversation is happening behind the scenes: How prepared are school facilities themselves for the operational demands AI will create?

  • 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.

  • Minnesota District Converts Middle School into Community Hub

    White Bear Lake Area Schools in White Bear Lake, Minn., recently announced the end of a major renovation project that converted a former middle school into a new centralized district and community hub, according to a news release.