News & Insights
At SNHA we harness our strength in diversity of projects, collective intelligence, and genuine curiosity to bring architectural solutions to life. We provide impactful design solutions that architecturally express the individual goals, values, and needs of our clients, creating a deep connection between people, information, ideas and resources and the built environment.
Our commercial, civic, institutional, and mission-critical designs embody performance driven, poetically crafted architecture.
SNHA’s Don McKay Featured in School Planning & Management Magazine
SNHA Principal Don McKay shares the importance of designing—and utilizing—immersive learning environments beyond the classroom.
Mid-Year Staff Announcements
Through the first half of 2019, SNHA welcomes our new team members and celebrates career milestones.
What Matters Most
As we are community-minded in our work, our passion for supporting people is evident in how we spend our free time as well. We asked some of our team members about how they champion the charities, foundations and organizations dear to them.
The Makerspace Movement
8 Reasons the Makerspace Movement is Here to Stay
In an age when smartphones are designed to dominate our attention, we risk depriving young minds of practical problem-solving opportunities. Future employment opportunities will require the application of STEM/STEAM principles to roles that have yet to be created. A culture shift focused less on camping in line for the latest technology, towards a self-empowered “I could do that” attitude is revolutionizing learning across the country.
SNHA Relocating to One Prudential Plaza April 1
Nearly double the size of the firm’s current office at 30 W. Monroe Street, the new 23,615 square-foot, full-floor office features a central communal area, views overlooking Millennium Park and Lake Michigan, and a variety of motivating yet functional work spaces for its diverse team of 80-plus employees.
Independent School Design: Latin School of Chicago Virtual Reality Tour
Independent schools are special places. Their distinctive values and educational philosophies create a culture unique unto themselves. This resonates perfectly with Sheehan Nagle Hartray’s situational approach where individual design solutions are favored over universal treatments.
Get an immersive view of Latin School through our Virtual Tour.
Differentiated Learning
Differentiation is a useful concept across a wide range of scientific, technological and mathematical disciplines. Two forms of differentiation have gained recent cultural relevance—differentiated learning and differentiated experience. They emphasize individual differences as opposed to what we have in common. Differentiation is a common denominator between these two forms, but the values underlying them are distinct, even opposite of one another.
Ridgeland Common Recreation Complex
Ridgeland Common is the 100-year-old flagship facility of the Park District of Oak Park. The new Recreation Complex is a substantial remodeling and expansion of dated indoor and outdoor recreation facilities. SNHA believes that architecture becomes meaningful through interaction with people. This video captures a day in the life of the Complex and its community.
How Libraries Are Becoming More Relevant Than Ever
Our diverse and global portfolio has equipped us with an in-depth understanding of technological, cultural, and societal change. With this knowledge, we create architecture that supports and empowers libraries to continue to be epicenters for lifelong learning both today and in the future. Here’s how we think libraries are becoming more relevant than ever. Empower […]
Virtual Reality Tour: Fountaindale Public Library District
The vibrant character of the new Fountaindale Public Library is rooted in local community concerns and in pragmatic library design. The building’s underlying structural grid derives from standard bookstack and aisle dimensions. The building’s organically shaped exterior mediates the rational structural grid and the surrounding park environment. The local park system is a primary source […]