Muchin College Prep, a campus of the Noble Network of Charter Schools, is the first high school located in Chicago’s Loop as well as the first high school located in a high-rise in the Midwest. The Loop location is a campus that can be accessed by all lines of public transportation.

Located on the seventh floor of the former Mandel Bros. Department Store Building, the project entails the interior build-out of 70,000 gross square feet of prior office space on three levels connected by open stairs. The upper two levels are used exclusively for the 550-student high school. The lower level is used by the high school and the Noble Network of Charter Schools Central Management Office.

The layout of the school consists of a ring of classrooms along the perimeter window walls as well as two interior ‘core’ volumes. One core houses science classrooms and is clad in translucent polycarbonate panels that are backlit to provide lighting to the hall around the core. The second core houses base building and school service spaces and is ringed with all of the student lockers. The project will be LEED-Gold certified.

General Contractor: Bulley & Andrews
Structural Engineer: WJE
MEP Engineer: IBC Engineering
Acoustical Consultant: Threshold Acoustics
Photography: Steve Hall / Hedrich Blessing