Completed: 2013
Architect: Valerie DeWalt Train & FGM Architects
Address: 5800 S. Stony Island Ave.
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The 130,000-square-foot Earl Shapiro Hall is a soaring, light-filled structure at 5800 S. Stony Island Ave., designed by Valerio DeWalt Train and FGM Architects. The state-of-the-art facility brings together the Laboratory School's nursery, kindergarten, and primary grades.
Design that Fosters Inquiry
Built with the ethos of early childhood education in mind, Earl Shapiro Hall is an exercise in using open floor plans to open minds. With doors from every nursery classroom directly to the outdoors, rooftop playgrounds, bird’s-eye views of inner courtyards, and two glass-walled ‘learning labs’, spaces meant to accommodate projects outside the scope of the regular classroom, the Lab School’s new early education center in Shapiro Hall is the kind of space that not only aids in teaching, but also encourages students to teach themselves.