Science and Arts Academy

Designed around the students' needs, this state-of-the-art educational facility features enhanced science labs, improved performance spaces and specialized classrooms. The school includes wireless technology throughout to accommodate its growing enrollment.

Centrally located near O'Hare, at full capacity the new Academy serves approximately 320 students from 40 communities throughout the Chicagoland area.

Opus demolished a dilapidated industrial building adjacent to the site to build the new academy and then demolished their current school, a former office building, to build a soccer field and play area.

The building design concept draws from both science and art. The boxiness of the precast concrete shell is relieved by planes of color, the largest of which is green corrugated metal. A large clock symbolizes the historic schoolhouse clock. Banners and inset tiles showcase the works of the young artists who attend the school.

Founded in 1992, the Science & Arts Academy is an independent school for intellectually gifted and artistically talented youth, pre-school through eighth grade.