Exelon Gymnasium

Exelon Gymnasium

Project Type: Gymnasium/Educational

Year Completed: 2011

Location: 3645 W. Chicago Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60651

Building Area: 12,400 sq. ft.

Grades Served: 9-12

Capacity: 590 students

LEED: Gold

Built

Humboldt

Exelon Gymnasium

In addition to providing students with the network’s first high-school regulation basketball and volleyball courts, the space hosts monthly “Town Hall” assemblies which celebrate student leadership and academic achievement. Unlike a typical gymnasium where visitors and home teams are seated on opposite sides of the court, a single set of telescoping bleachers are situated to one side of the court.

In basketball mode, the bleachers partially extend to the sideline to seat 400 visitors. In “Town Hall” assembly mode, the bleachers extend over the court to seat all 590 students along with invited guests. A 22-foot wide projection screen drops along the opposite wall creating a defacto stage where video, music, and spoken word performances can be held.

on a vacant lot in the City’s West

Park neighborhood, the

is changing the daily lives of 590 students of the Noble Network of Charter Schools’ Rowe Clark Math & Science Academy campus.

Plan

1 entry 2 maintenance 3 women’s restroom 4 women’s / visitor locker room 5 family restroom 6 men’s restroom 7 men’s / home locker room

storage room

mechanical access

retractable bleachers

competition size basketball / volleyball court

emergency exit

The ceiling of the gymnasium is comprised of twenty-four light reflective coffers each crowned by a 4 foot square high-efficiency skylight. These unique coffers amplify the daylight, absorb noise, conceal the mechanical systems and host the speakers for the Audio visual system. In order to avoid shadows on the court, the glass in each skylight is filled with an aerogel that insulates and diffuses the light. A clerestory window, seen above the top of the bleachers, allows a view to the northern sky. Motorized shades in the skylights are drawn to darken the space during presentations.

Sustainable strategies in the project include a green roof, a super-insulated envelope with high internal thermal mass, diffused daylighting, and heat recovery ventilation. The gym and the school share a sophisticated lighting control system that will allow both to collect energy savings from daylight harvesting and occupancy sensors. The shared parking lot is illuminated with LED fixtures that stay dim at night to save energy illuminating as someone approaches.

The building’s entry is defined by a sculptural perforated metal screen that helps both define the gym’s entrance and provide a visual stimulant to the subdued precast concrete shell.

Site Plan

1 main school building 2 front entry court, vacated alley 3 main entry 4 perforated metal entry “eyebrow” 5 mechanical equipment 6 white reflective roof 7 intelligent skylights 8 planted apple tree row in vacated alley 9 open downspout ‘waterfall’ 10 planted ‘green’ wall 11 new alley / parking aisle 12 permeable paved shared parking

Credits:

Client: Noble Network of Charter Schools 1 N. State Street Chicago, IL 60602 t: 312.521.5287

Architect: Wheeler Kearns Architects 343 S Dearborn St. Suite 200 Chicago, IL 60604 t: 312.939.7787

General Contractor: Bulley & Andrews 1755 W. Armitage Ave Chicago, IL 60622 t: 773.235.2433

Structural: Thornton Tomasetti 330 N. Wabash Ave, Suite 1500 Chicago, IL 60611 t: 312.596.2000

Photography

Mark Ballogg, Ballogg Photography 1459 West Cortez Chicago, IL 60622 t: 773.772.1507

Tom Bader, Wheeler Kearns Architects (Cover Image)

Awards: 2013 - AIA Divine Detail, Citation of Merit

2012 - Good Neighbor Award, Chicago Association of Realtors

2012 - PCI Design Award, Higher Education Winner