Several Redevelopment Pitches For Former Trumbull School
By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 27, 2014 3:30PM
Lyman Trumbull Elementary in Andersonville was one of the schools shuttered by Chicago Public Schools last year, in the largest closure of public schools in American history. The building could see new life, when it should have remained a neighborhood school.
DNAInfo Chicago reports as many as seven proposals to redevelop the former school building are being considered. Among the proposals: converting Trumbull into a school for autistic students. Wouldn’t that be novel? It’s such a no-brainer we wonder if it would be rejected immediately.
Other proposals include converting Trumbull into mixed-income “live-work” spaces for budding entrepreneurs, a Fresh Farms grocery store, and a possible new home for TimeLine Theatre Company. None of these proposals is absolute … yet. They still need to be vetted at community meetings convened by Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), Mayor Emanuel’s City Council floor leader. O’Connor could let CPS know what projects his constituency would accept. (A school, perhaps?)
Trumbull has been deemed by developers as a hot property. Developer Jay Michael told DNAInfo he and others with their eyes on Trumbull “want to see what the community wants before we spend too much time spinning our wheels.”