College of DuPage Carol Stream Community Education Center

Narratives

Architect Narrative

This conversion from a fire station to a community college regional center provides classes for first time students and meets the educational needs of the village businesses and residents. The Center includes two computer classrooms and one open computer lab;. two classrooms for credit and non-credit courses, one multi-purpose science lab and a community meeting space shared with the local library accommodating up to 200 people from village-recognized organizations. The college needed to appeal to first time full time and part time college students, community members seeking a new or advanced skill or just attending a meeting. The owners also wanted to be seen as a part of a local village. A welcoming, non-institutional environment was created that invited its neighbors to taste a new learning opportunity in a familiarly rustic, but contemporary setting.

The fundamental architecture of the fire station was retained. The neighbors can recall the rhythm of the elevation that has been brought into the 21st century as is appropriate for its current use. The space that formerly housed fire trucks is the heart of the building. Its transparency encourages the community to experience what is happening inside. Its high volume, open plan combined computer lab/career resource center/student lounge is at the heart of the building just as had been the trucks. Classrooms reveal a wood roof deck from the original facility. Classroom spaces incorporate principles of sustainability and are located at the building’s edge to maximize use of natural light. Sunscreen devices and shading have been installed to limit solar gain and glare.

Structural steel framing was used to reconfigure and reinforce the existing masonry and wood timber fire station shell. Structural steel tubes were used to frame out new window openings. Aluminum composite panel systems (ACPS) were used to clad two new sunscreen loggia structures to provide shading of interior spaces on the east and west facades. ACPS were also used to clad infill areas above new window openings. Steel-framed aluminum sunscreens were incorporated along the south facade to shield the sun from the interior classrooms.

Certainly the success of a college is based upon its curriculum, faculty and availability of appropriate technology. But here the owner is most impressed with, and seeks to emulate elsewhere, those features of the design and its site that maximize flexibility and thus minimize square feet. The open, inviting, casual and visible computer lab/lounge/career resource center not only maximizes the opportunity provided by the high bay, but conceptually succeeds in welcoming people who have not ever entered the doors of a college. The science lab can be used for a range of science, applied science and applied medicine and thus saves the need for multiple classrooms.

Regional facilities of community colleges that meet the needs of working people have proportionately heavy evening use almost exclusively during the week. Therefore shared parking was feasible with neighboring uses with complimentary schedules.

A civic sense of community is being achieved by shared parking with a church now and with a library later. Access to the college building was planned accordingly and is creating a town center that did not previously exist in this post-World War II village.

Educator Narrative

By way of background, the Fire Protection District had relocated out of the fire station that the Community College Regional Center now occupies. This is the context for the first partnership we had entered into with a municipality. In January 2001 an agreement was reached among three governmental agencies: the Village, the Fire Protection District and the College. The Village donated the land to the College and the Fire Protection District gave the fire station to the College. In return, the College, also in January 2001, agreed to meet the needs of the Village based on a study the village had done on educational needs of its population and businesses. It was the intent that a community college could solve the digital divide, provide community space and provide training to meet the needs of local business.
The school opened in September 2004. Each term 400 students enroll. We just completed a student survey and learned that 95% of the students felt that the program met or exceeded their expectations and 41% were new to the college, thus both our goal to extend our reach and the Village goals are clearly being met. Another goal of the Village was for the College to meet the needs of the underserved population. 53% of the enrollment is minority in contrast to the County where 16% is minority and the Village itself where 21% is.
I believe that the reason this center is so successful is its programming. We create opportunities for members of the community to “test the waters.” For example, monthly we have a free computer literacy workshop. While we have both for credit and non-credit computer courses, the free workshop introduces people into the system. In a similar way, opening the center to recognized community organizations for meetings, introduces them to the building.
In the additional three similar facilities that are in design or contemplated, we hope to duplicate the very open combined computer lab/career resource center/student lounge. I think it’s what we like best about this facility. We also like the anatomy/physiology/biology room and the baby sitting area. In the new ones, we want a more immediately evident reception area which wasn’t easily accomplished at this facility because of the existing structure. We will not likely have hard-wired computer labs, but have the labs designed for laptops. Finally, the community meeting room is designed to enable segmentation into two parts. There, like elsewhere in the building the structure is exposed and because of this the acoustics aren’t as good as they might otherwise have been.
The community is really happy with the building and the college. When the fire station was vacated by the Fire Department, the residents of the neighborhood were concerned that they’d get an auto repair shop since it would need the high bays. Instead they have a community resource which will even become better. Already, the Lutheran Church to the North shares parking with the Center and the Library has just bought the property to the south and it too will partner with the College for parking and programs.