Tarkington School of Excellence

Tarkington School of Excellence is the first school in Chicago to be built under guidelines for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. The goal of the design was to unify the various client programming needs within a prototype model in an intuitive and functional manner, with a physical presence sensitive to the community and natural parkland. Programmatically, this was attained by extensive dialogue with the client entities. Architecturally, this was achieved by scaling down the building to its surroundings by means of texture, shadow and transparency. More than an aesthetically vibrant and sustainable facility, Tarkington instills a sense of environmental stewardship through hands-on learning.