Westinghouse High School
Landscape Design
BauerLatoza Studio provided landscape architectural services for the new Westinghouse High School on Chicago’s West Side. The site and landscape design was developed to promote sustainability and where possible, showcase sustainable design as an educational opportunity. This urban high school is oriented around a large interior courtyard that includes a native prairie planting. The ground plane is divided into three separate areas by terraced planting beds placed on intersecting grid patterns in order to further separate the area without physical barriers. The prairie planting and integrated gathering spaces provide opportunities for exploration and outdoor learning. Interpretive signage give further information on the seeded prairie’s development and the grasses and flowering plants it contains.
This project also includes invisible sustainable elements in the form of underground stormwater detention/infiltration facilities. Stormwater is stored under parking areas and under the athletic fields. An innovative design solution utilized the foundation of the prior demolished school building, filled with large graded rock, to support the new fields above and allow stormwater storage in the voids between the rocks. The athletic facility design above consists of an eight-lane track, a football field, a soccer field, three new competition tennis courts, a discus throw, a shot put, a pole vault, and long jump events.
- Client: The Public Building Commission of Chicago
- Project Address: 3223 West Franklin Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois
- Project Size: 14.5 acres
- Construction Cost: $2.7 million (landscape architecture and athletic field features)
- Services Provided: Landscape Design, Ornamental Fence Design, Courtyard Design, Athletic Field
Design, Construction Document preparation, Construction Administration - LEED Certification: Silver