The Chicago Plan Commission has approved a $23.3 million project to convert the architecturally distinctive “Up Top” building at 13100 S. Ellis Ave. into a K-12 after-school center, including nine classrooms, a gymnasium, and offices—while preserving its memor
When residents refer to the “Up Top” building, it’s not a nickname they use lightly. The fan-shaped brick structure at 13100 S. Ellis Ave. has stood for decades as a landmark of Altgeld Gardens—built for a purpose that long since disappeared, then left to fall into disrepair.
Last week, the Chicago Plan Commission approved a $23.3 million effort to bring it back. By The Hand Club For Kids’ project will convert and expand the dilapidated one-story modernist building into an after-school center with classrooms, a gymnasium and meeting space.
For the organization, the goal is practical. For the neighborhood, the project is personal.
Designed by modernist architects Keck & Keck and built in 1945. the building originally served as stores. offices and services for the then-new Far South Side public housing development. Its distinctive shape—featuring a fan-like brick design and an overhanging curved roof—made it stand out from the more traditional-looking homes and buildings around it.
In the 1980s, “Up Top” became part of something bigger than a community center. The late Altgeld resident Hazel Johnson’s People for Community Recovery set up shop there. helping fuel the environmental justice movement by pointing to toxins emitted by industries in the Calumet region that were harming predominantly minority areas nearby. The city later granted the building preliminary landmark status earlier this month.
By The Hand Club For Kids Chief of Partnerships and Development Andraya Yousfi said the renovation is driven by the building’s history and the community’s desire to reuse it.
“We just think that there’s so much great history in the building, and we know it’s something the community wanted us to do,” Yousfi said. “Lots of incredible history in the building that’s really meaningful for the community.”
By The Hand Club has been active at Altgeld for 25 years. Local Advisory Council President Bernadette Williams said she helped bring the organization to the building so it could be preserved—and turned into something useful.
“With them preserving it, it’s going to be a new amenity [that helps with the] beautification of Altgeld Gardens,” Williams said. “It’s an eyesore right now.”
The plan would transform the long-vacant building into a K-12 after-school center. Under the renovation, the facility would include computer labs, nine classrooms, a kitchen, offices and a multipurpose room. Williams tied the need directly to the neighborhood’s daily realities.
“The expansion — it would help our teenagers, especially the ones who find their way into getting into violence,” Williams said. “It would help pull them off the streets to help them become better role models to the next generation. The children need help.”
The building’s updates would not erase its defining features. The project includes work by the firm Present Future Architects that adds a brick addition meant to hold a full-size basketball court. The renovation would also preserve a breezeway memorial containing names of Altgeld residents handwritten on a yellow brick wall.
The city’s landmarks designation report said that wall dates back to the 1960s. Renderings depict the renovated space as a bright new enclosed lobby that prominently features the memorial wall.
“They’re going to encase those names,” Williams said.
That balance—protecting history while rebuilding what’s missing for everyday life—fits the way “Up Top” has always functioned in the neighborhood. The design itself carries a specific logic: storefronts with large shop windows face south to take advantage of natural sunlight and the low winter sun’s warm rays. In early photos, the building’s big windows and transparency are a visible contrast to the surrounding, more traditional-looking buildings.
The renovations would bring those floor-to-ceiling shop windows back, restoring a transparency and visual lightness the building hasn’t shown in at least a generation.
The Up Top was designed by George Frederick Keck and his brother William. City landmark material says the structure was built as “a high-quality. cost effective and energy efficient commercial building.” Keck also gained fame for designing the House of Tomorrow. a futuristic 12-sided glass created for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. That home was relocated to Beverly Shores, Indiana, where it is currently under restoration.
Williams and Yousfi both emphasized how the landmark protections were part of making the project possible. The building’s preliminary designation protects it from demolition and unsympathetic alterations, and Yousfi said that designation is supported by By The Hand Club.
The preliminary designation is set to last until a permanent designation is granted by the City Council.
Yousfi said she hopes construction could begin by January of next year.
Once complete, the renovated building would join its next-door neighbor—architect Jackie Koo’s Altgeld Family Resource Center at 955 E. 131st St. Built in 2021 with a Chicago Public Library and a childcare center, it serves the same historically underserved community. The area is also preparing for future changes: the CTA Red Line extension is scheduled to be completed in 2030. with a station terminal at Altgeld.
“It’s just an exciting time for the neighborhood,” Yousfi said.
Altgeld Gardens Up Top building By The Hand Club For Kids after-school center Chicago Plan Commission Hazel Johnson People for Community Recovery environmental justice historic landmark Present Future Architects