Officer Donald Marquez Charter School

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Location

2916 W. 47th St., Chicago Map

Owner
United Neighborhood Organization

Architect
Austin AECOM

Officer Donald Marquez Charter School is one of two green school renovations underway by the United Neighborhood Organiozation (UNO). This first project is housed in a former Misericordia home for disabled children in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood. The two & four story, 58,150 sf building is opening this fall as a charter elementary school for 520 students, operated by the UNO Charter School Network. The project is seeking LEED Silver certification.

The green approach is fairly standard, including native vegetation and reduction of paved outdoor areas, a dense urban location, high-efficiency (but off-the-shelf) mechanical and lighting systems (such as daylight dimming and motion sensors), and low-VOC materials. Many of these items have become so routine on green buildings, that it's easy to understand why many advocates believe any building planned to be green from the start should be able to reach a minimum LEED Silver level.

Don't let this statement slight UNO's admirable commitment to green building. The organization (which represents Chicago-area Hispanics) currently operates five other schools, but all are leased from the Chicago archdiocese - this is the first to be renovated and owned by UNO. As it begins this expansion, UNO has indicated its intent to build all of its own schools green. Given that new Chicago Public Schools are already required to be LEED certified, let's hope to see other charter school operators following UNO's lead.

Like many green schools, there are plans for incorporating environmental lessons into the curriculum, aided by a green roof visible to students. However, because UNO plans to also host many community after-school programs, this building offers an unusual opportunity to educate the parents and other adults in the community on actions they can take to reduce their environmental impact. Again, it'd be nice to see more community-based organizations take advantage of their existing network (and legitimacy) while expanding their message to include the environment.

Other project team members include LEED and environmental consultant Shaw and commissioning agent dbHMS. Finally, note that this project set a new record for time to permit for a commercial project in the Green Permit Program - 30 calendar days.

Comments

[cristian barraza]

this school is straight

[Rosa Soria]

Hi, my name is Rosa Soria, my grandaughter Angelica attends your school and since she started going to your school I had seen her grades had gone up,in the other hand I don't have any thing good to say about her former school(Daley Academy)were intead of learning, she was living in real hell,where her teacher seem she did'nt care about what was happening to my grandaughter,because she was being bullied by other kids and for which she complain many times and the teacher never wanted hear about it, so nothing was done about it and for that reason she was getting very low grades.
I think there has been a blessing for her by starting going to Officer Marquez School,(it's her 2nd year here at Marquez) were I see the teachers care very much about her well being and were she has had the opportunity to blossom to a very happy child and for which I had to thank her caring teachers for. Thank You so much.
Rosa Soria