New Skinner school approved by PBC

A long-planned new Skinner Elementary School is slated to go up in the city's Near West neighborhood.

The original school, built in the 1950s, declined beyond restoration and was demolished this year, according to an attorney for the Public Building Commission. Plan commissioners have approved the development.

The school will be built at at 1234-1260 W. Adams St. and 111 S. Throop St. The three parcels comprise the original school site, a vacated public alley and two parking lots on Adams recently acquired by the Chicago Board of Education. The area increasingly has been converted to residential from the traditional light-industrial and warehouse use.


The new L-shaped, 106,575-square-foot, three-story school will serve up to 928 students from pre-kindergarten through 8th grade. Board of education officials expect 742 students to enroll to start.

Most of the building's 27 classrooms will face Skinner Park. The building will also have a computer lab, music room, art room, multipurpose room, library, gymnasium/auditorium, student cafeteria and kitchen.

Skinner is operating from a temporary location on Clybourn Avenue, about two miles north of the site.

"This school is long overdue and will serve the increased population. ... It has been one of the top schools in the state, and they weren't working in a beautiful facility but they still made it work," Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th) told commissioners. At least one commissioner noted that the project will reuse a historic water tank. Taken from a condo building at 1327 W. Washington St., it will be installed atop the school as part of a cistern system to irrigate the green roof.

"You hear about TIF [tax-increment financing] dollars taking money away from the public schools, well this project is being built with TIF dollars. There has been a lot of new development to the community and now people want to move here because there is a good school," Burnett told commissioners.

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source: chicagotribune.com