The story behind Mundelein High School’s science and classroom expansion designed by Legat Architects. District administrators, teachers, and students discuss the addition and its impact on the curriculum.
STEM education and workforce skills development drive design of Mundelein High School addition
A three-story addition establishes Mundelein High School (MHS) as a regional leader in STEM education and career preparation. Classrooms and labs quickly adjust to support everything from group work to self-directed study. The 55,000-square-foot expansion has allowed MHS to create business mentoring programs, university and corporate partnerships, and community outreach opportunities.
The expansion houses showcase spaces (STEM lab, Project Lead The Way lab, Business Incubator, Nano Nook) along the first-floor corridor, general classrooms on the second floor, and labs on the third floor.
Evidence of active learning appears throughout the facility: students collaborate in college-level labs twice the size of the old ones, conduct nanotechnology research or build robots in specialty labs, pitch ideas to business leaders in a corporate-style conference room, or work with renewable energy on the third-floor experiment balcony.
The expansion, designed in response to a constrained site, tops a one-story classroom wing and extends over an existing courtyard, thus creating three distinct courtyards. A skin of insulated metal panels provides a thermal envelope while complementing an adjacent addition.
Project Awards
Award of Merit, Illinois Association of School Boards
Merit in Architecture, American Institute of Architects – Northeast Illinois Chapter
