Blackney Hayes - Projects

1100 Ludlow Street, Suite 302 
Philadelphia, PA 19107

(215) 829-0922

Vision

Building AIM Academy

It began twenty years ago, when eight mothers of eight daughters with learning differences started to dream together about a school that could not just provide a great education, but also make an underserved group of kids fall in love with school for the first time.

Blackney Hayes principal, Jennifer Crawford, was one of those mothers, each of which had her own unique skill set to contribute to the cause. Thanks to their efforts, in less than a year, AIM Academy opened in a parochial school building in Manayunk. And in the twenty years since, Blackney Hayes has helped the school steadily expand its footprint, and increase its capacity to change kids’ lives.

In 2010, Blackney Hayes helped them find a permanent home, a former paper factory reimagined into a thriving school, with a prescient comprehensive plan.
In 2015, Blackney Hayes designed a new AIM Community Center that provides space for the school’s sports and fitness programs, visual and performing arts programs, and teacher training and conferences.
In 2018, Blackney Hayes redesigned AIM’s Upper School classroom wing to reflect a more sophisticated and collegiate approach.
And in 2022, Blackney Hayes designed a 2-story, 17,000 square foot expansion to the original mill building that houses state-of-the-art innovation labs that will better prepare AIM’s students for the challenges of the modern world.

“A lot of the kids who come to AIM have struggled in other schools, so our designs have always sought to make AIM a fun and unexpected place to be -innovative, colorful, bright, and welcoming. As one student put it, ‘Now we have a school that’s as important as we are.'”

Jennifer Crawford

Principal