John Ronan Architects

This youth center located on Chicago’s south side provides a constructive environment for area youths to spend their after-school hours. It supports the activities of the South Shore Drill Team as well as a wide range of youth educational and recreational programs. The building’s main space, an adaptable gymnasium that serves as practice space for the drill team, converts to a 600-seat performance venue via a deployable theater seating system, deployable curtains and stage doors that open to reveal a large performance stage. Together with the adjacent cafeteria, it comprises the center of energy for the complex. Bars of flexible program space for educational and recreational programs wrap around this core, ending in important spaces on the building exterior (dance rooms, art rooms), displaying the activity inside to the community.