Project Type

An adaptive reuse conversion of a former school into 42 luxury residences.

Scope

Common area and amenity planning / exterior entry design / lobby and corridors / tenant lounge / co-working and library focus spaces / amenity layouts / finish selections / lighting / furnishings / architectural drawings and renderings / design coordination

A historic schoolhouse with a second story to tell.

Most buildings this old get erased and replaced. This one had a history worth keeping. A former Catholic school in Ravenswood, with wide corridors, tall proportions, and the quiet weight of a place that held decades of daily life. When the developer set out to convert it into residences, Studio MAK's role was to carry that history forward rather than paint over it.

The line we worked was the interesting one: honor what made the building feel like a school without leaving renters to actually live in one. We warmed the institutional scale, softened the corridors, and let the original character read as charm instead of leftover. The past stayed present, just made comfortable.

Our scope was the shared experience, the part that decides how a building feels before anyone sees a unit. The exterior entrance, the lobby, the corridors, and the amenities, a tenant lounge, co-working, and a library-like focus space, all designed to land closer to a boutique residence than a standard conversion. Layouts, finishes, lighting, and furnishings worked together to make the history feel intentional.

What opened is a historic schoolhouse in its second life, the soul of the original structure intact, now wrapped in an experience elevated enough to lease on its own terms.