CHICAGO—John Hancock College Preparatory High School has been presented with the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association’s (HACIA) 2022 Project of the Year award, thanks largely to designer Legat Architects’ efforts to ensure diversity of its local hires as well as working to ensure greater community involvement.

According to a recent release from Legat, the 178,000-square-foot high school replaced another facility that had existed on the same site for a century prior. Legat’s partners at the jobsite included UrbanWorks, a minority woman-owned firm, as well as K.R. Miller Contractors and A.L.L. Masonry Construction Co., the latter also a minority-owned firm.

The school’s study body is largely Hispanic, and the HACIA award commended the design and construction team for hosting bilingual meetings with community leaders as well as working with the Federation of Women Contractors to construct a diverse workforce for the project.

The designers and builders faced a rather punishing deadline and a constrained urban jobsite in close proximity to Midway Airport. The team also had to work amid covid protocols and shutdowns enforced by the pandemic.

HACIA was founded over four decades ago to raise awareness of Hispanic participation in the construction and design industry.

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CHICAGO—The Hispanic American Construction Industry Association has awarded its Project of the Year award to the design team behind Chicago Public Schools’ John Hancock College Preparatory High School. The project team, which included Legat Architects, UrbanWorks, KRM/ALL Joint Venture and RME Engineering, was recognized for its focus on building a diverse team.

According to an announcement by Legat, the 178,000-square-foot high school, which replaced another hundred-year-old school on the same site, is the only new school built within the Chicago Public Schools’ district in the past year.

The project’s diverse bona fides included meeting or exceeding benchmarks set for Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and Women Business Enterprise (WBE) involvement and minority workforce participation. Furthermore, the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association noted that the team worked on inclusion throughout the design and construction of the school, including by hosting bilingual meetings with families throughout the district and hiring minority-owned businesses. UrbanWorks is a minority woman-owned firm and K.R. Miller Contractors and A.L.L. Masonry Construction Co. are both minority-owned firms.

Legat project architect Loren Johnson said in a statement released by the firm that the design-build nature of the school allowed the designers to tackle many of the problems in the drawing room before they became issues on the jobsite itself.

“On a publicly funded project, this rare opportunity aligned expectations, confirmed assumptions, and reduced the risk of unexpected results,” said Johnson.

Ground was broken for the school in April 2019, and even with several pandemic-related delays, it was still finished on time.

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