St. John's Lutheran School - Lombard, Illinois
By: Jennifer Walker - Journey
The quaint village of Lombard, Illinois, offers a snapshot of serenity just 30 minutes from the hustle and bustle of Chicago. Established in 1927, the town is best known for its abundant lilac bushes that light up the city each spring.
Long before the village had organized, in 1888, St. John’s Lutheran School was founded, laying its young roots in the town. Five years later, in 1893, St. John’s Lutheran Church was organized to operate the school.
In 1926, the church and school moved to its current location on South Lincoln Street, and in 1955, a major addition was constructed. As time moved on, the old school was slowly beginning to show its age. It had no air conditioning, had exposed conduit in many locations, and was not very functional.
By the mid-1980s, church officials realized they would have to consider building a new school in the years to come.
“The building was in need of major renovation, and being as old is it was, it would require significant work to bring it in line with current codes,” said John Aurich, St. John’s principal.
Space was limited, so church leaders began looking at adjacent property where old homes sat. As the homes went on the market, St. John’s purchased them. The forward-thinking church and school leadership knew it would have to find a way to pay for the new school, even if construction was years away. Soon after, the school began a capital campaign. Money was raised through a pledge drive, silent auction, and commemorative brick campaign.
As the adjacent homes gradually came into the school’s ownership and funds for the new school building began to grow, school leaders started focusing on what amenities the new school needed. Along with classrooms, there needed to be dedicated space for art and music, as well as a library and office space. A new gymnasium was in order as was general storage space.
“We also wanted a building that would be more energy efficient and allow for handicap access,” Aurich said.
The school organized a building committee and hired Legat Architects. Shortly thereafter, the committee brought on IHC Construction Companies based in Elgin, Illinois.
“After conveying our commitment and dedication as a valuable partner in building their congregation’s new school on time and within budget, IHC was awarded the job,” said Brian Fuller, IHC director of business development.
In July 2006, ground was broken for the new school. The plans included a 45,000-square-foot, two-story building with 14 classrooms equipped with the latest in technology, including cable TV and Internet access. The space included a library, 28-station computer lab, office space, nurse’s office, teacher workroom, conference room, an abundance of storage space, and dedicated rooms for art and music. The campus plans also included a 7,000-square-foot gymnasium with bleachers, changing rooms and athletic storage, plus a multipurpose room with a full kitchen.
The exterior originally was planned as precast but changed to brick/split and ground face masonry to comply with city regulations.
“Their main focus was to accommodate an enhanced learning environment in an updated facility to foster the religious education of their parishioner’s children,” said Todd Doyle, IHC senior project manager.
The limited acreage where the school was to be built created some challenges during construction, especially during the construction of the 151,000-gallon water detention system, which is buried below the playground behind the school.
“The tight site made it difficult to navigate cranes, scaffolding and equipment through and required careful staging to avoid damaging or caving the system,” Doyle said.
The system, consisting of six 96-inch diameter by 77-foot long corrugated metal pipes, detains storm water on site during heavy rains and is released at a slower constant rate into the city sewers to help alleviate the overflow of water through the city sewer lines that could potentially flood neighboring residences and businesses.
“We provided value engineering on multiple trade packages, which was reviewed extensively with Legat Architects, Amsco Engineering, and St. John’s to ensure that the building’s design and functionality were not impacted,” Doyle said.
The church saved additional money by asking the congregation to help with various portions of the project, contributing “sweat equity” for miscellaneous items such as installing a portion of the landscaping, sealing of concrete in storage rooms, installing low-voltage data cabling, hanging scoreboards, and installing lockers.
“For example, using the expertise of several church members, a group of individuals installed all the low-voltage computer and video cables throughout the building. This group installed more than 50,000 feet of cable during the construction,” Aurich said. “This work was done primarily on weekends or at night. I’m happy to say that all the members’ work was fully inspected and approved by the village inspectors.”
Thirteen months later, in August 2007, just in time for the 2007-2008 school year, St. John’s opened its new school building for preschool through eighth grade. Enrollment for the 2008-2009 school year is at 238, which has gone up since the new building was opened. Capacity is 325.
The older building is still used for storage as well as auxiliary ministries, such as a quilters group, food pantry, scout meetings, and youth gatherings. The old gymnasium provides extra space for basketball and volleyball practices.
“We were blessed to have a wonderful architectural firm and construction management company that understood our situation, needs, and limited budget. They performed wonderfully given the fact that our building site was small and throughout the construction phase we had school right across the street,” Aurich said. “We all feel that the Lord was blessing this effort throughout because as needs arose, they were met and exceeded.”
IHC Construction Companies, LLC, is an established construction management, general contracting, design-build, and underground utility firm, www.ihcconstruction.com.
Fast Facts
School: St. John’s Lutheran School
Location: Lombard, Illinois
Student Body: Current enrollment is 238. Capacity is 325.
Grades Served: Preschool through eighth grade
Project Goal: Build a new school building and gymnasium to replace an aging one
Size: 45,000 square feet
Cost: $7 million
Challenge: Patience to wait on space and funding for a new school
Solution: This 20-year vision began with purchasing adjacent homes as they came available for the school grounds, as well as a capital campaign that included a pledge drive, silent auction, and commemorative brick campaign.
