I always feared this. What if we threw a party and nobody showed up? Or, to be fashionably current, what if we opened our new offices and the world suffered a pandemic? As I sit here alone in our offices, I must tell you the effect is very similar. No staff, no visitors. The biggest […]
Even if the event doesn’t look exciting (that’s me on the left digging furiously next to Camille Martin, Oronde Kearney, and Sara Fields), the project really is exciting: Transforming the Academy of Warren, a K-8 charter school in a former strip retail property on a largely empty stretch of East Eight Mile Road, into a […]
Most things that are worth doing are hard, and some of them feel impossible. At Equity Schools we’ve taken on projects that are so mired in financial obstacles, the stakeholders can’t help but feel defeated. But there’s a solution to every problem, and we’ve learned a couple strategies to help keep that in perspective. But […]
Two years ago I wrote “Part I” of this story, noting that we were developing a “friendly, productive, and fun” working space in a 110-year-old active train station. And we like to tell folks our “Nonlinear Funding” strategies look for sources in unexpected and non-obvious places, so locating our office in a train station seemed […]
Good news! The “Chicago Prize” has advanced our project to compete for the Finalists stage (the Pritzker Traubert Foundation will award the $10 MM Chicago Prize to improve civic infrastructure on Chicago’s West or South Side). Equity Schools is teaming with Lawrence Hall to develop a new type of school in Chicago’s Englewood Community to […]
We all enjoy those moments when, to our surprise, something fits perfectly. Even the little things can bring pleasure – a new pair of jeans, Maytag blue cheese with a glass of Pinot Noir, the hilarious birthday card for a (much) older brother. But every once in a great while the perfect fit involves something […]
With a name like “Equity Schools, Inc.” you might think all we do is work on school projects. Well, I really like schools a lot, I love what they can do, and probably 80% of our work involves them in some form: public, private, charter, PK-12, colleges, universities, urban, small town. And we are always […]
People sometimes ask us about where our company name, Equity Schools, came from. I can safely bet you won’t guess the story. Whether or not you find it interesting is something else entirely, but maybe you’ll find it helpful if you’re trying to come up with a name yourself. Remember 1995? William Jefferson Clinton was […]
Beautiful, playful community center looking for a loving home! Good for children! Good for seniors! Favorite activities: Café (with fair trade goods), music, fitness, co-working, dining facility, after school activities, summer camps, maker space, climbing/bouldering, rooftop play space, and a giant slide Community raised Nearly ready for development Can live on only 4,000 SF site […]
We’ve always had nice offices in downtown Chicago – the kind with the polished stone conference tables, cushy chairs, projection screens, and all the trappings. Very nice (33rd floor of this shiny building). But hardly anyone ever comes to our offices; we can go years between visits. Rather, we go out to our projects to […]