“Veteran Chicago Public Schools (CPS) teacher Barbara Johnson was teaching at Oscar DePriest Elementary School in 2013 when nearby Robert Emmet Elementary School was closed, one of four schools shuttered in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago, part of the largest mass closure of schools due to declining enrollment and poor academic performance—50 in all—in American history. Her school absorbed students from Emmet and much of the trauma from this loss. The building sat empty for years, but she never forgot about it.

“Every time she walked by, she would think, ‘If I ever got into some money, I would want to transform it into a homeless shelter,’ she told AN. ‘But I didn’t have the resources.’ However, the will, vision, and money were there to bring Emmet back, as her neighbors banded together to transform it into a workforce development and community services hub led by neighborhood-based nonprofits, Austin Coming Together and Westside Health Authority, with roots in the area. ‘Together they were able to do it,’ said Johnson, who recently retired from teaching.

“Darnell Shields, the executive director of Austin Coming Together, hands the credit back to the community itself: ‘I feel like the community reclaimed it,’ he said.

“Schools closed in 2013 have been converted into luxury housing, private schools, senior housing, and a union hall, but the $47 million Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation, designed by Lamar Johnson Collaborative (LJC), is the first comprehensive, community-led adaptive reuse of an affected CPS school. This effort is embodied in the Aspire Center’s dramatic 50-foot, triple-height atrium lobby and the glass curtain wall that erupts out of the legacy redbrick facade with the confidence and refinement of a cultural institution. It’s a signpost for the West Side of Chicago that there’s a future for self-determination and rebuilding after public sector abandonment.

“The atrium curtain wall is structurally isolated from the legacy brick, connected via a caulk joint and rainscreen panel system. Westside Health Authority purchased the school in 2018 for $75,000. The school was built with two wings, the latter of which was designed by longtime Chicago Board of Education architect John Christensen and built in 1935. Its stolid massing, graceful proportions, and understated formal decoration make it a fine example of progressive early-20th-century Chicago school architecture.” (Mortice, The Architect’s Newspaper, 8/4/25)

Read the full story at The Architect’s Newspaper

• Lamar Johnson Collaborative transforms a long-shuttered Chicago school into the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation, centered around a new crystalline triangle atrium, Zach Mortice, The Architect’s Newspaper, 8/4/25
• Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation celebrates grand opening; The project has repurposed a closed CPS school building, Lukas Kugler, Urbanize Chicago, 6/26/25
• Austin’s Aspire Center Opens This Summer, Transforming Vacant School Into Community Hub; The former Emmet Elementary is being converted into a workforce training and development center for residents. Westside Health Authority and Austin Coming Together are partners in the project, Michael Liptrot, Block Club Chicago, 2/4/25
• Aspire Cententral Avenue and build wealth for Austin residents, Jessica Mordacq, Austin Weekly News, 1/22/25
• Aspire Center Breaks Ground With Promise Of Bringing Work Training, Business Development To Austin; The center will be at the former Emmet Elementary School, which closed in 2013, and itr on track to open this spring; The building is part of a plan that aims to revitalize Ce’s expected to be done in 2024, Trey Arline, Block Club Chicago, 5/5/23
• Emmet School redevelopment clears zoning hurdles; Westside Health Authority’s project to break ground in spring, with partial opening anticipated in 2023, Igor Studenkov, Austin Weekly News, 1/7/22