A former school in the Austin neighborhood now serves as a vibrant community center and workforce development training facility, more than 10 years after a shutdown left it vacant and deteriorating.
The Robert Emmet Elementary School at 5500 W. Madison St. educated children for nearly a century before its 2013 closure by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. It was one of 50 Chicago public schools closed that year due to low enrollment, most serving low-income communities.
The second life of the building, now called the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation, is the brainchild of the community group Austin Coming Together and the nonprofit Westside Health Authority. They envisioned continuing its history as a community resource, rather than let it fall into private hands.
“Austin is surrounded by manufacturing zones on three sides, but even with all the jobs around us, there wasn’t the infrastructure to get people the certifications and training they need to be considered for those jobs,” said Natalie Goodin, interim director of the new center.
The partners brought in architecture firm Lamar Johnson Collaborative to design the $40 million renovation, which transformed the fenced-off parking lot into a community plaza and added a three-story, glass-walled entrance that glows at night.
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“The school had become a symbol of the lack of investment into the neighborhood,” said Max Komnenich, project lead and associate principal at the Lamar Johnson Collaborative. “Things were beat up inside, and there was a lot of asbestos and lead paint that had to be dealt with. But a 50-foot wall of glass says: Hey, this is not just a little school renovation. If you drive down Madison in the evening, you can’t help but see it.”
Community-led initiatives have started renovations at other shuttered schools. Developer Gorman & Co. last year kicked off construction at the vacant Charles W. Earle Elementary School at 6121 S. Hermitage Ave. in Englewood, transforming it into 50 apartments serving those at risk of homelessness. And in 2023 Englewood community group Go Green on Racine, along with Gorman & Co., won City Council approval to transform Woods Math & Science Academy at 6206 S. Racine Ave. into The Regenerator, 48 units of affordable housing, a public health clinic, pharmacy, community center and computer lab.
Komnenich said Emmet School was in rough shape when Westside Health Authority bought it in 2018. But its quality construction and historic features, including 13-foot ceilings and wide hallways, make it superior to many modern buildings, and he hopes it serves as an example for other communities still struggling to find new uses for abandoned schools.
“The quality of the (building’s) bones are incredible,” Komnenich said. “It’s a real pleasure to be inside this building, but it’s not the kind of thing you can build any more.”
The renovation did add modern amenities, including lounge spaces, an outdoor terrace, high-tech conference facilities and a 100‑foot mural by Austin‑born artist Shawn Michael Warren. But Lamar Johnson Collaborative also preserved much of the original flooring and woodwork, including a bench where generations of unruly students waited outside the principal’s office, now occupied by Austin Coming Together.
The Jane Addams Resource Corp., a nonprofit that teaches welding, mechanical assembly, manufacturing trades and other skills, agreed to be one of the Aspire Center’s anchor tenants. It took over the refinished school gym, where now it teaches adults to drive forklifts or operate other heavy machinery.
“Jane Addams has been in Austin since 2017, but they never had a permanent home until now,” Goodin said.
Local community groups, stakeholders and residents hatched the idea for the Aspire Center while developing a quality-of-life plan for Austin. Sponsored by the Local Initiatives Support Corp. and overseen by Austin Coming Together, the 2018 plan sought to reverse the West Side neighborhood’s economic and population decline by generating enough investment for new affordable housing, early education facilities, and building the Aspire Center, among other measures.
“People felt very strongly about what the (Emmet School) should become, and strongly felt it should be returned to the community for community purposes,” Goodin said.
The Aspire Center proposal was a finalist in 2020 for the Pritzker Traubert Foundation’s inaugural Chicago Prize, which awards $10 million to community-led initiatives that grow local economies and increase neighborhood wealth. Although it didn’t win, being a finalist eventually helped Austin Coming Together and the Westside Health Authority break ground on their dream project.
“It did put us on the map, and put us in front of a lot of important people,” Komnenich said.
The groups completed financing in 2023, Goodin said. About $22 million total came from the city and state, with the rest raised by tax credits and other private donors, including BMO Bank, which plans to open a branch on the first floor and offer financial literacy classes.
Construction on the first two floors was completed late last year, and a grand opening Juneteenth celebration was held last month, with both Mayor Brandon Johnson and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot attending. The third floor is still empty and under construction.
“This is a neighborhood which can have nice things,” Komnenich said. “I hope it is a catalyst for things to come.”