Whose idea was this? Who was involved in its creation?

The goal of updating key aspects of the Laboratory Schools’ physical plant goes back nearly 20 years to school leaders: Lab Board members, teachers, parents, administrators, and consultants who saw core areas that needed improvement. The desire to reignite interest in achieving goals that were not addressed then (for financial and other reasons) began in July 2003, when a new director joined the schools.

Since 2003, virtually every member of the Schools’ community—all teachers, administrators, parents, staff, and many members of the University of Chicago administration have had the opportunity to offer ideas, make suggestions, and be involved. The alderman has also hosted open forums inviting the communities surround the Schools to participate. 

What is Lab’s pedagogy and how did it inform the process?

We often refer to the term “pedagogy” when discussing the Lab+ project. Simply put, pedagogy refers to the art, science, or profession of teaching. Lab’s pedagogy goes back more than 100 years, and in creating new spaces for our Schools the architects have been fully anchored by this approach to teaching and learning. Within a few years of starting the school, founder John Dewey outlined the beliefs that have continued to guide us:

• Students benefit from an environment where teachers and students learn from each other.

• Students learn best through experimentation, reflecting on the conditions and consequences of action. By contributing to others, students develop their individuality and unique capacities to add to the common good.

• At its best, a school exemplifies a purer form of our society’s democratic principles so that students grow into adults who improve their world.

What informed the architects’ work?

Once Valerio DeWalt Train and FGM were hired as project architects, they began their preparation with extensive groundwork before ever designing additions or new buildings:architects spent days immersing themselves in the Schools’ activities with students and faculty.

They also conducted more than 90 hours of interviews with teachers, parents, students, staff, and administrators from every division and academic and co-curricular unit.

A “visioning” group of 26 University and Lab administrators, the four principals, teachers, parents, and students met with the architects help define the priority needs of the new facilities, with experts in fields as diverse as management science, psychology, information technology, arts education, library planning, and even anthropology and genetics.

VDTA/FGM and representatives of Lab visited best-in-class schools around the country to help inform their recommendations for Lab.

Why do we need a new building? Don’t we have enough space already? Why not build on our current campus?

Our existing space simply cannot accommodate the additional 276 students that Lab will enroll over the next decade in its efforts to 1) maintain the University/non-University, socio-economic, and racial diversity that has been the hallmark of a Lab education, and 2) create a U-High with a large enough student body to support important academic programs and extra-curricular activities to attract the best students in Chicago.

Even without these additional students, the Schools have long faced space issues that constrain our programs. For example, theater and arts spaces are either much too small for the caliber or demands of our programs and student interest and/or are squeezed into spaces never meant for that purpose. 

The architects explored at least a half dozen configurations of new spaces on Lab’s existing footprint. All required a major sacrifice of green space, which goes directly against fundamental (and pedagogical) requirements for Lab teaching—both in terms of simple unstructured outdoor play and formal P.E. and athletic programmatic needs.

The Schools even explored moving the Frank R. Lillie House, a designated National Historic Landmark, which sits next to the Schools on the SE corner of 58th and Kenwood. It proved an untenable solution.