Chicago cuts ribbon on schoolyard with stormwater improvements

The playground at Edward Coles School, in addition to improving its recreational assets, will also be able to capture 568,534 gallons of water from each rain event.
Nov. 14, 2022
3 min read
Photos courtesy MWRD.
Space to Grow partners and school members celebrate the new schoolyard at Coles School with students.
Space to Grow partners and school members celebrate the new schoolyard at Coles School with students.

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) is celebrating the opening of a school playground that blends stormwater management components into the lot’s improvements.

The playground before improvements.
The playground before improvements.
The schoolyard improvement project transformed the old asphalt playlot into a vibrant place  at Edward Coles School. It is the 32nd schoolyard conversion completed by the Space to Grow® partnership since 2014. The Coles School lot, however, is able to capture more water than any other school to date: the stormwater improvements can capture 568,534 gallons for each rain event.

Partners of the Space to Grow® program, including MWRD, the Chicago Department of Water Management, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Healthy Schools Campaign, and Openlands joined school leaders to celebrate the new schoolyard with a ribbon cutting on Oct. 28.

The playground after improvements.
The playground after improvements.
“The new schoolyard at Coles School offers students a dynamic place to play, learn and grow while allowing the neighboring community to benefit from the green infrastructure elements that mitigate flooding and improve water quality,” says Kari K. Steele, MWRD president. “We hope students and families enjoy all the features that have been included in this beautiful schoolyard.”

The schoolyard includes an artificial turf field, basketball courts, porous playground surfacing, several play hills and rain gardens, and an outdoor classroom.

Coles School is uniquely located above a seam of sandy soils. With the use of permeable surface improvements, the lot can now hold 568,534 gallons of stormwater per rain event. That is equivalent to filling more than 13,500 bathtubs or 300,000 basketballs, an enormous amount of water kept out of the sewer system and nearby homes when heavy rains ensue. The schoolyard thus reduces flooding, reduces basement backups, reduces the load on the combined sewer system, and educates students and neighbors about green infrastructure techniques and purpose.

“This new schoolyard offers students, teachers and the community an attractive place to gather while also building resilience in anticipation of future storms,” says Kimberly Du Buclet, MWRD commissioner. “Thank you to our Space to Grow® partners for protecting our water environment and their commitment to improving the lives and learning experience for Coles School students.”

Coles is the second of four $1.5-million schoolyards that the Space to Grow® partnership is set to unveil this fall. Once the ribbons are cut, 34 Space to Grow schools will have been completed since 2014, bringing the grand total of storage volume to 6.5 million gallons per rain event.

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