I applied for a professional development grant through my company and was awarded funds to attend this year's Architects for Learning Environments (A4LE) Conference in Chicago. I've been to Chicago once before, and I find it to be a wonderful city.
The conference was held at the historic hotel, the Palmer House, in downtown Chicago. It was 4 days packed full of seminars, tours, and keynote speakers, including a session on designing for safety by Architect Svigels + Partners, who redesigned Sandy Hook after the school shooting.
We toured 4 different schools around the greater Chicago area: a new elementary school, a renovated high school serving over 2000 students, a small Montessori, and a historic Crow Island grade school by the architect Eero Saarinen. The selection featured very different and creative approaches to the modern learning environment.
