Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary

Wight & Company · Glen Ellyn, Illinois

The Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary gives Glen Ellyn School District 41 a building designed around full-day kindergarten.  Wight & Company added two stories to the Churchill campus, with twelve classrooms as well as a multipurpose room for indoor play, a dining commons and a reading garden.  The project is LEED and WELL Certified.  After scouting the building with Craig Siepka, Wight & Company’s Vice President and Design Principal, I was honestly a touch nervous.  It struck me as one of the most architecturally strong schools I had been tasked with.  I felt beholden to my client to do the building justice, and  deliver something special.  I don’t think I ever get used to the notion that “another day in the office” frequently means digging deep to connect with the artistic soul.

Children working at tables and on concrete steps beneath the slatted canopy of the outdoor amphitheater at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Children walking up the curving entry drive toward the timber and steel canopy of the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Brick facade and arrival canopy of the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary across a green lawn, with families gathered at the entrance
Long brick and glass elevation of the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary seen across the turf playing field
Tree-like steel columns and slatted canopy over the courtyard amphitheater and picnic tables at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Reading garden with flowering plantings and a narrow path leading to the canopy at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Looking up through the branching steel columns to the perforated canopy against a blue sky at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Brick and stone wall with tall narrow windows beside warm yellow panels striped with canopy shadows at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Slatted canopy shadows falling across yellow wall panels and brick at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Angled steel columns and timber slats of the entry canopy against yellow panels at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Library and learning commons with soft seating, a round ceiling cloud and glass walls at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Upper-level dining commons with long tables, children at lunch and a green railing overlooking the multipurpose room at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Two-story multipurpose room with tree murals, a green stair and a slide, and children playing on a koala floor graphic at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Sunlit lounge with curved seating and a teacher reading with children beside glass walls facing the courtyard steps at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Boy reading in a house-shaped wall nook along a corridor that opens to the learning commons at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Children walking through a series of house-shaped portals in a green corridor lined with cubbies at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Teacher working with children at a table beside a house-shaped reading nook in a classroom at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Bright kindergarten classroom full of children working at tables at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Teacher and children at tables in a green-accented kindergarten classroom at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary
Girl walking past a colorful welcome mural with a koala and greetings in many languages at the Kindergarten Center at Churchill Elementary