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At Intrinsic School’s new downtown campus, learning extends beyond the classroom walls and includes partnerships with nearby businesses and cultural institutions, weaving the vibrant downtown fabric into the school’s ethos.
Spanning five floors of the 1906 Rector (Bell Federal) Building in downtown Chicago, the high school leverages its central location to serve an intentionally diverse student body. In its first year, students came from over 40 neighborhoods, enabled by the robust transit options nearby.
Students enter a secure, dedicated entrance at the street level, with both stairs and an elevator leading to the school’s main lobby on the second-floor. Here, students check-in, gather before class, and navigate to their different classes using a new centralized staircase.
Building upon the successes of Intrinsic’s flagship Blended Learning campus on Chicago’s Northwest side, the Downtown Campus design reinforces the school’s unique 21st-century learning styles and adapts them to fit a completely different context in a downtown high-rise structure.
In a blended model, teacher-led instruction is supplemented by individualized software-based learning, and large, customizable learning environments on each floor called “Pods” are populated by a variety of distinct zones, each of which is tailored to a specific style of learning.
The design of the open area of each Pod provides for a rotation of different modes of learning. A “coastline” of individual desks, furnished in both standing and sitting heights, provides a place for personalized online learning where students learn at their own pace. “Exchange Tables,” situated in the middle of the Pods host peer-to-peer learning. Two “pop- up class” areas provide teachers a place where they can remediate a common misunderstanding or reinforce a newly learned concept with up to 12 students.
Additionally, small huddle rooms and seminar classrooms are designed for specialized instruction, including space for local partners to meet inside the school.
On each floor, glass partition walls and clerestory windows are used to bring as much daylight through the building as possible.
“What impressed me most was WKA’s organization, vision, and strategy—and the fact that they acted as a true thought partner. I didn’t expect that from an architect.”
Tim Ligue, COO, Intrinsic School
Additional Images
Construction Manager: Bulley & Andrews
Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
MEP/FP Engineer: McGuire Engineers
Acoustic Consultant: Kirkegaard
Kitchen Consultant: Edge Associates
Owner’s Rep: IPM Consulting, Ltd.
Photography: Tom Harris Architectural Photography and Kendall McCaugherty, Hall + Merrick Photographers