Groundbreaking Ceremony for New Playground at A.N. Pritzker School

Epstein recently attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a new playground at A.N. Pritzker, an elementary school located in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood.

For this project, Epstein is serving as the Design Civil Engineers and the Architect of Record. We are also working with Burhani Design Architects and Wolf Landscape Architecture to design a new 3-acre playground for the school. The existing paved playground was an L-shaped, mostly asphalt, open area. The space is being converted into a more organized and programmed space with artificial turf, new landscaping, basketball courts, a soccer field and a kickball/baseball diamond.

For this assignment, Epstein's staff were responsible for:

• Reviewing the conceptual site plan as well as the existing building
• Coordinating with the design architects and landscape architects to pair creativity, color and use for the site
• Designing underground detention facilities and bioinfiltration areas and permitting through Department of Water Management
• Designing off-site ADA ramp improvements
• Providing construction management and weekly construction site visits

Funding for this project was raised through the non-profit organization Friends of Pritzker (FOP). Our Greg Osborne, P.E., LEED AP, Director of Civil Engineering, has worked for years as part of the FOP fundraising for A.N. Pritzker.

Construction for the school began in June of 2019 and is scheduled to be completed prior to the first day of the 2019-2020 school year.