Marwen Expansion 833 N Orleans St
Marwen Expansion
Project Type: Non-Profit Art Education Organization
Year Completed: 2015 (Phase 2); 1999 (Phase 1)
Location: 833 N. Orleans St, Chicago IL 60610
Size: 29,875 sf (total); 1,060 sf (new loggia); 15,000 sf (new and renovated studio spaces)
Grades Served: Underserved students in Chicago, grades 6-12
Capacity: 900 students yearly
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4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 W. INSTITUTE PL N. ORLEANS ST W. CHESTNUT ST P U B L C A L LE Y 4’ 8’ 16’ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 W. Institute Pl. W. Chestnut St. Public Alley N. Orleans St. W.
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4-story Brick Structure 1-story Vestibule Former Vehicular Driveway Asphalt Parking Lot Adjacent Vacant Lot The “El” Train Tracks
Site Plan - Before
4-story Brick Structure New 1-story Loggia addition Exterior Breakout Pervious Paver Parking Lot Pedestrian Entry Vegetated Fence Vehicular Entry Vehicular Exit The “El” Train Tracks
Site Plan - After
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Before After
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For 15 years, Marwen’s physical presence to the public and neighborhood went largely unnoticed. As an internalized tenant on two floors of a fourstory industrial loft building, the ambitious and inspiring center for visual arts wasn’t visible from the outside. The purchase of the building and adjacent lot allowed Marwen to expand its site to create a fully realized arts campus. With its new presence, Marwen conveys to the public its thoughtfully composed mission and vision, just at it has always done from the inside.
The new campus aims to be a cohesive learning community that serves as a cornerstone of arts education for diverse communities throughout Chicago. The program includes a renovated main public gallery for student work, a student and family lounge, alumni gallery, library, administrative offices, and nine state-of-the-art instructional studios for painting, printmaking, photography, graphic design, film, animation, textile arts, sculpture, and ceramics.
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Founded in 1987 in a one-room art studio, Marwen’s mission to educate and inspire under-served youth through the visual arts was born. Marwen offers free, professional-caliber after-school arts programming and college and career support to students in grades 6-12, filling the void left behind by the gutting of public school arts programs.
The expansion included a new entry and parking court, a 950 square-foot steel-and-glass multiuse loggia space, an additional 15,000 sf of new and renovated studio spaces, as well as new windows, HVAC, roof, solar panel array, and building signage.
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Gallery and critique spaces showcase student work on every floor to encourage social interactions. The Loggia provides a safe and visible gathering place for students, and creates additional opportunities for showcasing student work. To reach the instructional studios, students encounter artwork created by their peers and teachers in the loggia and main gallery, fueling their imagination and creating an aspiration to see their work displayed in the galleries as well. The professional quality of the building empowers students to take their work seriously and imagine the reality of a career in the arts.
The existing masonry, heavy timber loft building was mined for its beauty. Floors were gutted to expose a raw structure organized by Douglas Fir columns. Tooled concrete floors were poured to provide appropriate sound deadening and to complement the existing brick masonry and Douglas fir beams.
Marwen students, many of whom have few support systems and little encouragement, are dedicated to the act of making, traveling long distances via several modes of transportation to attend classes. The goal for the design is to encourage this dedication by creating a safe harbor for students, that also liberates them to explore. To achieve this the architecture takes a “backseat” using simple interventions and materials that allow student learning and artwork to remain the focus.
Like art, architecture is something to explore and to learn from. This may be the first consciously designed space some students have encountered. As architects, we must have the optimism to hope that good design has the power to inspire, and that a simple, artfully expressed stair, a thoughtfully placed piece of ductwork, or the proportioning of a material palette will be absorbed by the inhabitants, whether explicitly or implicitly.
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14 First Floor Plan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Lobby Reception Student Lounge New Lobby Pantry Workroom Elevator Lobby Loading Elevator Egress Stairs Office The “El” Train Tracks 2’ 5’ 10’ 1 5 7 10 9 10 11 11 11 11 11 12 2 3 9 6 8 3 1 5 7 10 9 10 11 11 11 11 11 12 2 3 9 6 8
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16 1 2 3 4 5 6 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 8 9 8 9 11 11 10 10 13 2 7 7 7 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 8 9 8 9 11 11 10 10 13 2 7 7 7 7 2’ 5’ 10’ Second Floor Plan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Hall Existing Studio Dark Room Mail/Copy Hall Corridor Storage Elevator Egress Stairs Women’s Restroom Men’s Restroom Office Server
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20 2’ 5’ 10’ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 11 12 13 12 13 14 14 15 16 17 17 17 17 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 11 12 13 12 13 14 14 15 16 17 17 17 17 17 Portfolio Documentation Tech I Media Storage Dark Room Tech II Tech III Digital Video Studio Exhibition Administration Hall Storage Elevator Egress Stairs Women’s Restroom Men’s Restroom Unisex Restroom Office 1 2 3 4 5 6 Third Floor Plan 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
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22 4 12 1 2 3 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 8 8 9 10 11 2’ 5’ 10’ Fashion/Fiber Studio Wet Room Multi-use Studio Ceramics Studio Existing Fire Pumps Storage Elevator Egress Stairs Women’s Restroom Men’s Restroom Mechanical Electrical Elevator Equipment 1 2 3 4 5 Basement Floor Plan 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
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Credits:
Client/Owner: Marwen 833 N. Orleans St Chicago, IL 60610 t: 312.944.2418
Architect: Wheeler Kearns Architects 343 S Dearborn St. Suite 200 Chicago, IL 60604 t: 312.939.7787
General Contractor: Power Construction Company, LLC 8750 W. Bryn Mawr Ave Chicago, IL 60631 t: 847.214.6373
Landscape Architect: Wolff Landscape Architecture 307 N. Michigan Ave, Suite 601 Chicago, IL 60601 t: 510.845.7549
Structural: Thornton Tomasetti 330 N. Wabash Ave, Suite 1500 Chicago, IL 60611 t: 312.596.2000
Civil Engineer: Terra Engineering 225 W. Ohio St, 4th Floor Chicago, IL 60654 t: 312.467.0123
FFE Consultant: Gensler 11 E. Madison St, Suite 300 Chicago, IL 60602 t: 312.456.0123
Lighting Consultant: Lux Poluli Mexico City t. 312.239.0956
Photography: Steve Hall, Hall + Merrick Photographers (formerly Hedrich Blessing) 4245 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618 t: 312.226.9588
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