At the intersection of Ashland and Foster in Andersonville sits a striking art deco building spanning an entire city block. There’s no signage out front, save for “You are beautiful”—a recent public-art installation—spelled out on the marquee outside the main entrance. This building, once home to Trumbull Elementary School, was sold last September to Svigos Asset Management, a private developer, for $5.25 million, according to Chicago Public Schools. Trumbull was one of nearly 50 schools the district closed in 2013, and its sale price is the highest price the district has fetched for any of the shuttered buildings. Building plans include residential units, a community arts space, and a theater in what used to be the school auditorium.
But near the opposite end of the city, in Englewood, another former CPS school has met an entirely different fate. Unlike Trumbull, which was considered one of then-head CPS architect Dwight H. Perkins’s most successful buildings, Bontemps Elementary is modest in size and utilitarian in design. Neglected and vacant for more than three years now, the building has been overtaken by vines, and plywood boards seal off every ground-floor entrance. Litter and rusted gates complete the picture of a blighted former school site.
CPS’s decision to close 50 public schools in 2013—despite protests from parents, students, teachers, and community organizations—made national news, with many calling it the largest mass school closing in the nation’s history. District officials vowed to repurpose the buildings to benefit affected communities, the majority of which are communities of color.
“The strength of this recovery has been very uneven,” Geoff Smith, executive director of the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University, says of the city’s real estate market since the foreclosure crisis of the late aughts. “In some areas like Lincoln Square, North Center, Lincoln Park, or West Town, house prices have reached or surpassed previous peak levels.” But in struggling areas on the south and west sides of the city, prices for single-family homes can be up to 50 percent less of what they were at their previous peaks. And in some cases, Smith says, prices in these areas are near or below what they were in 2000, before the housing bubble.
The site details the three-phase process put together by an advisory committee that Emanuel selected in 2013. The first phase was to identify immediate reuse for buildings to help meet “programmatic needs.” Five schools were repurposed in this phase, mainly as administrative offices. The advisory committee recommended that, in phase two, communities “be engaged to solicit input through their respective Alderman, who will convey that input to CPS and will direct CPS to put the property up for sale.” The committee also recommended that the proposed use of the renovated building be considered along with the sale price for each property.
