For nearly a century, the Field Center Classroom at Field Park has been a hub of Oak Park’s Field Park, hosting programs for children and adults and, as the community grew over the years , she was trying to keep up.
Since 1926, the Center has been periodically updated and modernized, improved and modernized as best as possible. But lately the parks district has realized the community has too many needs and the building is lacking life. The district envisioned a larger building with another classroom, with better accessibility, a stage and other amenities, something unique and durable, something lasting, because in Oak Park the legacy is often as significant as the design.
So in February, the Oak Park Park District announced an open competition for a new space. Any building designer could apply, and each design was judged by architects and community members. A total of 26 models arrived and one was chosen at the end of the summer.
Patrick Brown, founder of Chicago design firm ORG Inc., landed the nomination. For the park, it’s another new public building, but for Brown, whose young company hasn’t done many projects yet, the project represents a big public display of his craft and vision. This victory testifies to the strength of his ideas.
“It’s a little surreal,” Brown said. “I couldn’t even tell you how many competitions I’ve entered, and you rarely expect to win them, especially ones like this that are anonymous and open. I’m grateful that they gave us this opportunity given that we don’t have a substantial track record, but I think they see the drive that I really want to build a special building and I think they also want to build special buildings.
Brown said this type of open competition is not very common in the United States today, although it is still a popular tradition in other parts of the world.
Jan Arnold, executive director of the Park District, said the community wanted a building that met the needs of park users but also the values of the community. They wanted something new but something that would last. An open competition seemed like a good way to get a range of potential designs and, anyway, the last time they needed a Field Center classroom, that’s how they made it did.
“The process was done the very first time they built these buildings in 1926,” Arnold said. “Frank Lloyd Wright was in that one and he didn’t win.”
Even in its second incarnation, this was a big win for Brown.
Beyond aesthetics, the building had to be sustainable and Brown said he took that to heart. It’s easy enough to get timer-controlled lights, low-flow toilets, and energy-efficient light bulbs to shave pennies off an energy bill and market the design as green, but none of that hype window did not suit Brown.
“I always have to be careful with my language when I talk about this sort of thing,” he said. “Sustainability is just a buzzword and too often it’s something that’s applied as an afterthought. One of the most fundamental aspects of sustainability is the ongoing cost of its (building) maintenance and replacement. The longevity of materials has a considerable impact on the durability of the building throughout its life. … You have to thread that needle between what you can afford and also back up a little bit between what you can afford and the best possible building.
Brown rammed earth, a building material made from local soil, pressed onto itself, usually with a gravel or clay mixture added and allowed to harden. The material is durable, abundant and low-impact, and while the technique has been used for thousands of years and is experiencing something of a renaissance, it is still a new material.
“What I found interesting about his design was that I didn’t understand what it was about until he gave the presentation, but the material is rammed earth, which is innovative and durable” , Arnold said.
It is something old transformed into something new, something that extends into the future and has roots deep in the local soil. He got the green light. Construction will begin next year and when the doors open, they will do so in an interior unlike anything else in Oak Park.
“It’s not like inside your house, when you have drywall or plaster or whatever you have,” Arnold said. “The wall outside is what you will see inside. We don’t need paint.
Indeed, the walls resemble adobe – the color of the local soil and the entire building will be built into the park’s berm, almost emerging from the earth, an offering to the human inhabitants, a gift.
“We hope this gives us another 100 years,” Arnold said.
Jesse Wright is a freelance journalist for Pioneer Press.
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