Design Work Finished For Wilson Addition

Thu., July 30, 1998

Amy Scribner Staff writer

The final design has been completed for a Wilson Elementary addition, and the project likely will go to bid next week.

A new wing will be connected to the southeast part of the school, replacing an annex that’s been in use since the school’s eastern wing burned in 1973.

The addition will also allow the district to remove a portable where music classes have been held.

The work is being paid for through part of a $74.5 million bond passed in February. About $1.3 million in bond money will be used for the Wilson addition.

The new addition will include seven classrooms, said district Planning Director Ned Hammond. It will house kindergarten and primary classrooms as well as a music/art room.

Students will continue using the annex, which will be moved behind the gym, until the wing is finished. Construction is expected to be completed early next year, Hammond said.

The new rooms will each be about 950 square feet and will be wired for new technology.

But community members made it clear they wanted to fuse modernity with tradition, Hammond said.

The 1927 school includes terra cotta and brickwork that will be closely mimicked in the addition. Parents, neighborhood council members and teachers met with district officials several times to voice opinions.

“The community was actively involved,” said Hammond. “They encouraged us to capture some of the historical quality of the original structure.”

Hammond said the community’s other concern was keeping the new addition’s footprint small, leaving as much room as possible for the playground.

Manito Neighborhood Council member Linda Yeomans said the community is pleased with the results.

“It’s going to look wonderful,” she said of the new addition. “The bricks will have the same texture, scoring and size.”

The school is also scheduled to receive a new library. About $700,000 in bond money is set aside to remodel and expand libraries at Wilson and Pratt elementaries on the South Side and Madison Elementary on the North Side.

Wilson’s library, which will double in size, will include the space currently used for kindergarten classrooms. The kindergarten classrooms will have to be moved to the new wing before the library remodel can begin, Hammond said.

The library work is expected to happen next summer.

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