The Chicago Housing Authority and the Chicago Public Library announce the architecture firms that will design co-located housing and library developments for three neighborhoods in Chicago.
The three firms selected are John Ronan Architects, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Perkins+Will.
The new library facilities will offer programs and spaces for children, families and the Chicago Housing Authority. There will be a built-out early childhood active learning space, one-on-one homework assistance and a YOUmedia program for high school students.
John Ronan Architects will design the Independence Branch at 4022 N. Elston in the Irving Park neighborhood. The firm is known for the Gary Comer Youth Center, South Shore International College Preparatory High School and the Poetry Foundation.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill will work on the Roosevelt Branch near Taylor and Ada streets on the Near West Side. This project is part of CHA’s ongoing redevelopment of the Roosevelt Square neighborhood. Previously, SOM designed the award-winning Chinatown Branch Library, the Richard J. Daley Center and the John Hancock Center.
Perkins+Will will design the Northtown Branch at Western and Pratt avenues in the West Ridge neighborhood. The firm designed the original and new Jones College Preparatory High School in the South Loop, Rush University Medical Center and Campus transformation project on the West Side and more than a dozen libraries, some with mixed-uses.
Construction was scheduled to begin to begin by the end of this year and planned to finish in winter 2018.
The firms were selected after a competition where 32 proposals were received. Three semi-finalists were selected, three for each project, and had to present designs that were evaluated quality, sustainability and innovation.
