Architecture

The award-winning Gary Comer Youth Center was designed by John Ronan Architect to specifically support the activities of The South Shore Drill Team and programs for children of the neighboring Paul Revere School. Educational and recreational spaces wrap the Drill Team’s main practice and performance area, with major spaces exposed on the building exterior to promote the activity inside to the community, and invite participation.

"The idea was to feed off the energy of the Drill Team and let that permeate the building." —John Ronan

"You can feel a sense of possibility here that you can't on real ground."
—Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune

Roof Garden

Press

New Youth Center in Grand Crossing a Beacon of Optimism by Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune, June 2006

Miracle of 72nd Street by John Hockenberry, Metropolis Magazine, December 2006

GCYC Ribbon Cutting produced by Lynette Kalsnes, WBEZ Chicago, May 2006

Chicago: Reinventing a Legacy BluePrint Magazine, May 2007

Ten Modern Masterpieces, Chicago Magazine, September 2007

Awards

John Ronan Architect received the 2007 First Place The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for Architectural Excellence in Community Design for the Gary Comer Youth Center.

The Comer Science and Education Foundation received the 2006 Patron of the Year Award from the Chicago Architecture Foundation for the Gary Comer Youth Center.

The rooftop garden was recognized with two awards in 2006:

Mayor Daley’s Landscape Award 2006
1st Place Green Roof Division

Mayor Daley's GreenWorks Awards 2006

The Chicago Building Congress presented The Gary Comer Youth Center with the 2007 Merit Award for New Construction.

The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd. selected The Gary Comer Youth Center as one of thirty-five distinguished buildings in the 2007 American Architecture Awards competition.