L ab+ is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Schools that represents the culmination of nearly two decades of planning on the part of our community. Lab+ will help maintain the diversity so central to our community while allowing for transformative improvements to every aspect of the Schools’ programs and campus.

Here are some of the many collaborative milestones leading up to the Schools’ current work:

 

1991

 

·       Laboratory Schools’ administrators, board, teachers, and planning professionals initiate a process to address immediate needs as well as long-term goals for the Schools.

·       Architecture firm Nagle Hartray creates a Master Plan to bring structure to the Schools’ planning. It is built on extensive studies about what kind of space the institution will need in the future to effectively meet its mission.

·       At this earliest stage, the Schools contemplate the need for a new arts “wing,” an assembly space large enough to hold an entire division, and small flexible theater spaces for both the Middle and High Schools.

 

 

 

1992–1993

 

·       Undertaking a first-ever—albeit comparatively small—capital fundraising effort, the Schools build a new Middle School and renovate Rowley Library—the initial phases of improvements needed to meet the school’s programmatic objectives.

 

 

2001–2002

 

·       Following the successful Campaign for the Gymnasium, Kovler Gymnasium, a seamless addition to Sunny Gym, is completed.

 

·       The University (having already turned over portions of Judd Hall for Laboratory Schools’ use) begins to better assess requirements to ultimately make all of Judd ready for classroom/student use.

 

 

2003

 

·       School leadership determines that increasing the size of the High School by +100 students would bring the school in line with ideal size, providing the student base to support a broader array of desired activities and academic offerings.

 

 

2004

 

·       High School science labs are renovated and updated.

 

·       Nagle Hartray returns to bring shape and cohesion to a variety of issues related to the growth of the High School that require leadership attention, from how to best use new space in Judd Hall to programmatic needs in the arts and libraries to facilities issues: life safety, aging buildings, and infrastructure.

 

 

2005

 

·       With University support (and with the original Master Plan now well over a decade old), the Schools engage Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP for a next stage Master Plan process. Among the goals:

-      Accommodate expansion of the high school for 100 additional students

-      Expand libraries and allow for growth

-      Significantly enhance visual and performing arts facilities throughout the school

-      Improve faculty spaces and dining facilities and provide state-of-the-art infrastructure and necessary life safety systems and access to support the campus into the future

 

 

2006

 

·       SOM presents several potential configurations of existing and new structures to meet the goals. Suggested improvements include:

-      A new flexible 350-seat theater center for the Middle and High Schools

-      A new dining/recital hall complex for the Middle and High Schools

-      Ample fine arts education and gallery spaces, as well as musical and performing arts rooms, for all divisions

-      Expanded libraries for all divisions

-      Expanded science, computer, and language laboratories

-      Renovated and improved Lower School classrooms and facilities

-      Enhanced outdoor public spaces

-      A state-of-the-art building infrastructure and a fully-accessible and intelligent facility

 

 

2007

 

·       The University approves moving forward with the essence of SOM’s Master Plan. The University and Lab identify a financial framework for the effort, including University and campaign-funded financial commitments.

 

·       Recognizing that plans to grow the University faculty population would limit Lab’s ability to maintain a diverse student body (and emphasizing that non-University families were an important aspect of that diversity and the Lab experience), the University president tasks the Lab board with identifying solutions.

 

·       The Board committee concludes that Lab could in fact grow the size of the school assuming it re-organizes from four divisions into five—each would be right-sized in terms of serving students, maintaining community, having a principal who could know every child, etc.

 

·       SOM revises its proposed Master Plan to reflect the addition of 276 students (including the long discussed addition of 100 high school students.)

 

 

2008

 

SOM returns with revised Master Plan designs amended to propose the construction of an Early Childhood Center on Lab’s existing campus (assuming Woodlawn would be retained).

 

The Schools explore whether additional nearby land might offer a possible expansion location. No obvious and/or attainable parcels of land appear to exist.

 

Locating the new center on the south section of Jackman Field (between Dorchester and Kimbark) evolves as the only solution both practical and consistent with Lab’s values and need for green space. The Schools begin to gather input from many constituents.

 

The family of Earl Shapiro commits $10 million to the Lab+ Campaign. The gift, linked in no small way to the Master Plan process, kicks off a key fundraising phase and allows the Schools to begin the process of hiring an architect.

 

Following a months-long RFP process, the team of Valerio Dewalt Train Associates (a generalist architecture firm with strong design credentials) and FGM (a school specialist) is selected. The team brings everything and more that the Schools and the project require, including 15 other specialists in such areas as historic preservation, theater design, acoustics engineering, landscape, and sustainability.

 

 

2009

 

·       VDTA/FGM manages an extensive fact-finding and preparatory process that will inform their work. It includes these major steps:

-      Immersion: 65 hours participating in every aspect of Lab: riding buses to school with kids, joining carline on a hectic Friday dismissal, attending classes in every division and discipline, sitting in on athletics practices and theater rehearsals, learning about Lab history and tradition, and more.

-      Visioning: 26 University and Lab administrators, the four Lab principals, teachers, parents, and students help define the priority needs.

-      Interviewing: 90 hours of interviews with faculty, parents, students, staff, and administrators. Every member of the faculty, staff, and administration offered at least one opportunity to share ideas and concerns.

-      Benchmarking: VDTA/FGM, with representatives of Lab, visit best-in-class schools around the country.

-      Assessing: Determining current and desired state of the physical plan.

 

·       VDTA/FGM and administrators seek expertise from some of the country’s greatest thinkers and educators—people deemed expert in fields as diverse as management science, psychology, information technology, library planning, and even anthropology and genetics—whose ideas are used to help inform and shape the process. The team brings together all their finding in a document called “Outlook: The Future of Education.” 

 

·       Building envelope repair begins, including tuckpointing and roof repairs to Blaine Hall.

 

·       An opportunity to use the parcel of land that is Doctor’s Hospital on Stony Island Avenue becomes possible. University Trustees give permission to proceed with planning under an assumption that the Stony Island site could be a viable alternative for the Early Childhood Campus. The concept offers both opportunity and challenge and is very worthy of serious consideration.

 

·       An extensive effort to involve Lab’s many constituents in the discussion begins: faculty, parents, the alderman, and the broader public are all invited to participate.

 

 

 

2010

 

·       The architects and the planning committee share with Lab’s Board very initial Stony Island ECC schematics and correspondingly revised main campus plans for the arts wing. Discussion about ways to preserve important aspects of Lab’s culture are raised, and it is noted that teacher involvement in these solutions will be paramount.

 

·       University trustees approve initial schematic design for the ECC at the Stony Island site and provide finances to finish work on Blaine roof repairs and for architects to proceed with more extensive design work for the ECC.

 

·       Architects hold special sessions with N–2 faculty to get input about their specific needs and goals for an ECC space specifically at Stony Island. Preliminary floor plans schematics are used in the discussion.

 

·       Architects hold 30+ meetings each with specific departments or divisions to share ideas about the proposed plans and to get specialized and focused feedback. All members of the division/department are invited to attend. More than 100 different Lab employees at all levels participate.

 

·       Architects, traffic consultants, and the Parents’ Association invite all parents to discuss traffic and safety issues related to the Stony Island site, including safely accessing the public park across Stony from the site.

 

·       The University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees approves key elements of the Lab+ Campaign:

-      The Campus Planning and Facilities Committee approves the entire schematic design of the Laboratory Schools’ renovation and expansion project

-      The Financial Planning Committee authorizes funds to implement the first construction phase of the project, allowing Lab to move forward on the Early Childhood Campus, as well as key renovations to existing historic campus.

 

 

2011

 

·       The Laboratory Schools' community celebrates groundbreaking for Earl Shapiro Hall with a grand party on the cleared construction site.

 

·       Construction begins in earnest on Earl Shapiro Hall. To view the webcam of progress, visit http://labcam.uchicago.edu/view/viewer_index.shtml?id=159.