Crow Island School's most important feature is that it is the architectural expression of an educational philosophy, which in Winnetka is essentially the philosophy of progressive education. From years of practical research and continuous exchange with educators elsewhere, the district "recognizes the child's need for physical health, emotional and social adjustment, self-expression and the development of special aptitudes, and the mastery of the useful parts of reading, writing, arithmetic, history, geography and science."

The architects were eminently successful in expressing their sensitivity to the needs and desires of small children. Everything at Crow Island affords young people a more intimate, homelike atmosphere while, at the same time, they experience an expansive sense of freedom. Each of the L-shaped "one-room school" modules contains large sections of glass to admit light into all the rooms and the hallways. Each also has its own small courtyard of flagstone, walks, and shrubs, contributing to a pleasant sense of spaciousness.

The plan of the building is designed to bring an abundance of light and air into the classrooms. In every way possible--through lighting and ventilation as well as texture and color, the architects provided for the welfare of the children who spend their hours of work and play in these rooms.

Each classroom has a glass-paneled transom door opening onto a courtyard, linking outdoors and indoors. The one windowless interior wall in each cIassroom has served as the tackboard that teachers have used and loved for 50 years. The low ceilings are finished in acoustical plaster and the recessed lighting contributes a calming atmosphere to the arrangement.

Following the philosophy that the school should fit the child, everything is scaled to children's needs, from the height of door handles and blackboards, to the size of benches under the windows; there are no overly elaborate or forbidding refinements. Classroom doors are painted different, bright, primary colors so nobody gets lost. Ceilings were lowered from the standard 12 feet to nine. The furniture, including movable desks and tables, designed by Larry Perkins and Eero Saarinen, was made by the Illinois Crafts Project of the WPA, with the assistance of the Welfare Engineering Company. The few extant pieces still bear the WPA stamp on the bottom.

The chairs of bonded plywood (pictured) were especially designed by Eero Saarinen. The auditorium's plywood benches, also designed by Eero, vary in size from front to back, with seating for the smallest children at the front and for adults at the back.

Eero's first wife, Lily Swann Saarinen was commissioned to create ceramic sculptures that were incorporated into the walls of the school. These animal sculptures, by a most gifted ceramic sculptor, appeal to the children and lend an intimate and charming aspect to the simple, broad areas of brick construction.

The 23 glazed ceramic plaques that appear both inside and outside the school were fired in Maija Grotell's Cranbrook studio. Marjorie Cast Danforth, a student of Grotell's in 1938, assisted LiIian by researching glazes. In the Crow Island lobby are plaques depicting Noah, three pair of animals, and the dove.

Today, as an organization of 400 design professionals, the firm of Perkins & Will is still thriving in eight offices here and abroad.

Click on the photo to the right for a printable copy of an article from the May 1999 issue of Architectural Record entitled "Perkins & Will Named Firm of the Year for Six Decades of Accomplishment."

 

The firm of Perkins & Will today.
Photo ©Michelle Litvin.
All other photos ©1999 Roger Shepherd
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