Sure, it might seem fitting that the British School of Chicago is located on Bryn Mawr Avenue in Edgewater – after all, “Bryn Mawr” means “big hill” in Welsh. But the average Welshman bristles at being labeled British, and with its pricey tuition (nearly $20,000 a year for older students), English style and small, exclusive enrollment (fewer than 300 kids, many the children of dignitaries and executives), The British School of Chicago might be more at home in a new building at Halsted and Eastman, on the edge of tony Lincoln Park and a stone’s throw from the Gold Coast, than in a rehabbed Catholic school building in gritty Edgewater.
And what a new building it is, or will be, as far as we can tell from renderings and construction so far (completion is scheduled for early ’08). The new structure’s best profile will be from the south, where a wall of glass and an exposed steel frame will face drivers headed north on Halsted. The Halsted Street side has a glass ground floor, which, in an unusual twist for a Chicago school, will house retail. Above the first floor (by American definition, not British), the Halsted Street side angles back slightly, a metallic gray facade dominated by a tall glass bay in its center.
“We wanted to make the building look like it was leaning into the future,” Sheree Speakman, Chief Operating Officer of the for-profit British Schools of America chain was quoted as saying in a news release. Indeed, the building does appear to be leaning foward. There is a real sense of motion about this structure, which resembles a boxcar or locomotive. The pronounced curve at the roofline is echoed at the top of the first floor and continued in beams that angle sharply to grade on the building’s north and south sides.
Most schools are designed to project solidity, authority, tradition. Architects Valerio Dewalt Train Associates designed this one to appear forward-looking, open and on the move – an interesting choice on the school’s part, since those aren’t necessarily the first traits one associates with a British education. The interiors by A. Epstein and Sons International continue the modern look. And of course, there are those ground-floor stores, part of the package by developer Structured Development.
BSC is one of five schools operated by the British Schools of America (others are in Washington, Houston, Boston and Charlotte). It was founded in the former St Gregory’s Elementary School building at 1643 W Bryn Mawr Ave in 2001 with 11 students. By last year, the school had grown to 222 students, and the new building has a maximum capacity of 600 students (classes are capped at 20 pupils).
In her news release, Speakman emphasized that the British School of Chicago “very much wanted to be an urban school” and that the new location allows for “strategic partnerships” with BSC’s new community. The most immediate community, directly across Halsted, is what’s left of the Chicago Housing Authority’s Cabrini-Green projects and the expensive new condos and townhouses that have been replacing them.
I’m not sure why the Near North Side is any more urban than Edgewater, but the BSC has proven itself a good neighbor so far by bringing a terrific design to the neighborhood. An even better way to highlight its identity as an urban school would be to offer a couple of scholarships to children living in the comparatively small number of CHA replacement units that are part of the massive housing developments replacing Cabrini.
