Chicago Jewish Day School

The Chicago Jewish Day School (CJDS) is a multi-denominational Jewish school that provides both Judaic and general studies to help students develop a strong Jewish identity and become a community of Jewish learners. Located in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood, Eriksson Engineering Associates, Ltd. (EEA) provided civil engineering, traffic and parking, and landscape architecture services in a way that efficiently utilized the entire campus site, increased safety, and improved the school’s natural urban beauty.

On-site parking at the school was maximized by redesigning an existing parking lot, adding new parking areas, and moving ADA accessible parking spots closer to the building’s entrance in the public alleyway bisecting the campus. The northern half of the alley was reconstructed to accommodate the new parking spaces, as well as ensure that proper drainage was created to protect the CJDS site and neighboring properties. Additionally, new sewer connections were added and connected to the City’s sewer main, and new water connections were constructed to meet City of Chicago code.

The campus design incorporated several pedestrian and vehicular safety improvements. A secure entrance was created leading to a new building addition, and a controlled and gated drop-off area was designed to limit the interaction of cars and students and increase safety for the school community. All of the building entrances were brought up to ADA code with the installation of additional ramps and sidewalks.

EEA’s landscape team prepared landscape plans for the campus, including the remote off-site parking lot. In collaboration with our civil engineers, large, vegetated islands were designed in the new vehicular drop-off. These islands create landscaping focal points at the new building entrance while still allowing for buses and parents to navigate the drop-off. The existing trees on the campus were inventoried to help meet the City’s landscape requirements.