An affiliate of the Young Women’s Leadership Network, the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (BLSYW) is an all-girls college preparatory public charter school serving young women in Baltimore City. When the school moved to its current location in the busy downtown neighborhood of Mount Vernon, it faced the challenge of increasing its footprint to accommodate more students and programs. The very tight nature of the building and the lack of physical expansion space on the site demanded outside-the-box thinking from our team; the best option was to expand upward. Curry Architects worked closely with the structural engineer to creatively suspend three new stories above the building’s central core, which housed a historic gym. Exterior windows became interior windows and classroom doors. The students were amazed that what was once a view to the outside evolved into additional floors of much-needed classroom space that looked original to the building.