The Nature Conservancy
Hammond Elementary Courtyard

Hammond Elementary School is a Chicago Public K-8 school located in the city’s Marshall Square neighborhood. Like many other urban schools, the building is housed on a small urban site immediately adjacent to California Avenue, with limited space for outdoor play, outdoor instruction, or green space. In partnership with The Nature Conservancy and Latinos Progresando, Living Habitats was hired as the primary consultant to lead a community-based design effort to re-envision the courtyard space at the school. This project was motivated by the overlapping goals of improving air quality and increasing green spaces along California Avenue as identified in the 2020 California Avenue Corridor Plan.

The project began with outreach and engagement efforts that queried students, staff, and community members about the current state of the space and how to best reimagine the courtyard. Efforts to involve the community were multifaceted. Surveys, both paper and digital, were distributed to students, staff, family members, and other school neighbors to provide quantitative feedback while an interactive student workshop provided a qualitative insight into the students’ concerns and desires. Additionally, a community open house provided the greater neighborhood time to share their desires for the space.

Upon analyzing the community feedback, design themes emerged that were integrated into the final concept design. The courtyard was reimagined as a series of outdoor rooms that filled the many needs of the school and its students. The central courtyard is enlivened with a brightly painted sport court mural and new basketball hoop, provides multiple wood seating options, and new planters facing the basketball court. The main courtyard is flanked by two garden spaces: one a quieter learning room on the north side of the courtyard, featuring group seating and native pollinator plantings, the second an active space on the south end, with interactive seating elements and plantings that engage the senses.

 

Location:
Chicago, Illinois – Marshall Square Neighborhood

Date:
2023 – 2024

Team:
LIVING HABITATS: Prime Consultant

THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: Funder and Project Management

LATINOS PROGRESANDO: Community Liaisons