Project Narrative

We were selected by Arco Murray General Contractor to help restore the Frances Scott Key South School building back to its original splendor when it was designed by Dwight Perkins, the chief architect of the Chicago Public Schools in 1907. The Key Elementary Public School consisted of two buildings North & South, serving the city’s Austin neighborhood until it closed in 2013. The North School building, built in 1969, became the home to The Field School when it underwent renovations in 2022. The South building is listed on the National register of Historic Places which allowed half of the $18 million cost to upgrade to be financed by a historic tax credit and a new market tax credit that encouraged private investment in low-income communities. The remaining money was raised by The Field School a non-denominational Christian school which reserves half of their seats for families living below the poverty level.

The Trifecta

The award of this historic rehab project was particularly exciting for us because it was allowing us to carry out our company mission to “restore, protect & enhance where we work, live and play” while allowing us to perform work in all three areas that we provide services in. Essentially, we had been awarded the “Trifecta” of contracts. After receiving our contract, we immediately went to work coordinating with the Arco team. Their mission was to maintain the historical integrity of the overall project while upgrading all aspects of the structure to today’s building standards. We provided mockups of several different historically correct color schemes and color matched existing stains in various pieces of woodwork. We provided safe and effective solutions for several stair and floor locations as well as applied our acquired expertise in fireproofing in the new elevator shaft location. We were always willing to cooperate and change courses when necessary.

Learning & Applying New Things

Our scope included painting of wall from 14’ to 32’ high which required us to apply all our safety training and skills while we used various ladders, scaffolds and lifts both interior and exterior to safely reach the heights necessary. Traditionally much of our work involves spraying with a much broader technique. The many types of decorative time-period wood trim, and framework required us to get much more detailed and closer while maintaining speed and accuracy. The prairie style mission trim in the auditorium challenged us to devise a process to coat the three-dimensional trim pieces across all the surfaces of the walls, ceilings, soffits and balconies. Our painters would spray the dimensional pieces of one color and then go back in with a brush to paint the flat surfaces the base color. This type of work on scaffolds and ladders requires being tied off or harnessed at times to maintain safety. This technique was also applied to much of the wood trim throughout the classrooms and corridors while we carefully sanded, primed and applied paint at various levels.

Honing our Fireproofing Skills

Fireproofing in the elevator shaft and lobby area was necessary to bring it up to code and protect the structure and its inhabitants. This area was very confined and prohibited our installer’s ability to move. They were able to draw upon their previous experience to devise a way to apply out typical material in an efficient way while maintaining the proper thickness needed for code.

Practicing Teamwork with Epoxy Flooring

While we have gotten very skilled at installing epoxy flooring over the past few years. The installation in the basement area proved to be a labor of cooperation between all the trades who were working and storing their materials down there. We sought the advice of our epoxy rep for the proper procedure and materials to be used on the 100+ year old concrete floor. While we were grinding and patching each area needed to be shut down. We advised the team what would be necessary, and a schedule was created and agreed upon to streamline this part of the project. Although we could not complete the basement floor in one mobilization teamwork prevailed and each trade moved in and out of those areas in a timely manner.

Sharing the Stage

The stage floor coating also proved to be a team effort. One look at the condition of the floor and our epoxy team knew it was time to enlist the help of someone who could infill all the gaps and reinforce.

Meeting the Challenge

Once again, we have been enlisted to provide the striping for the renewed hardwood gymnasium floor. Our material needed to be compa􀆟ble with floor installers and base and topcoat materials. This forced us to work with a manufacturer and rep that we had never worked with before. Coordinating with them and the school representative to meet their team sports requirements as well as match the school colors.

The Field School South is ready to receive students this fall. A􀅌er being separated for several years both North and South locations will be uniting the students K—8, of very diverse backgrounds in their unified educational and community goals. The field school accepted the challenge of rehabilitating this historic beauty and will now reap the benefits. Southwests acceptance of the “Trifecta “ challenge allowed us to be unified us as a team and it has allowed Southwest to grow our skills in many different ways while carrying out our mission of restoring, protecting and enhancing the places that we live work and play.