Abe and Ida Cooper Center

The Abe and Ida Cooper Center, part of Jewish Child and Family Services Chicago (JCFS), is a new ground up community center for children and families in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. The Cooper Center offers vital therapeutic programs and services for people of all abilities, in addition to holding a number of lectures, trainings, and community and special events throughout the year.

Eriksson Engineering Associates, Ltd. (EEA) provided civil engineering services for the site, including the design of a parking lot with main entry drop-off, playground, stormwater detention, sewer and water services, and a lift station.

A portion of the site had initially been developed as town homes that were ultimately never built. As a result, the existing water and sewer connections were successfully reused. EEA engineers incorporated the oversized storm sewers into their stormwater detention system design, which provided significant cost and time savings for JCFS.

Proving particularly challenging, the Cooper Center property is located next to a People’s Gas service center with multiple large gas mains in the site location’s right-of-way. As the utility connections already existed within the street, EEA only needed to route the storm sewers to a new lift station, rather than design the construction of new lines, which would have also been costly and prolong the project timeline.

Recognized for its innovative design, quality of construction, and extensive impact on community and inclusion initiatives, the Cooper Center won a CBC Merit Award for New Construction Under $15 Million.