Beaver Country Day School Research + Design Center

2017Institutional · Primary and High SchoolsEducational

Year: 2017
Category: Institutional · Primary and High Schools
Type: Educational
Status: Built
Firm: NADAAA
Location: Newton, United States

Beaver Country Day School is Private Secondary School, located in a suburb of Boston that boasts a highly progressive pedagogy, championing collaborative learning, digital and physical making, and sharing with a greater community. A new facility was commissioned that would reflect the ambition of the faculty and students and at the same time be allowed to transform as pedagogies developed. The project addresses a variety of programmatic requirements as well as re-defining the focus of the campus toward a central courtyard.

The primary programmatic consideration of the design is the transformation of their library, currently located in a two-story 1967 era wing of the campus. The traditional stack areas and reading rooms have been re-branded the Research + Design Center, and the former library is expanding its reach into the rest of the school, providing accessible routes, meeting areas, digital and physical fabrication labs, and a variety of group work areas. The project consists of 24,000 square feet of addition and 16,500 square feet of renovation.

Construction is expected to begin in June 2016 and to extend over two-three years as the Beaver campus is utilized almost constantly through the year. Credits: - NADAAA - Project Manager - Arthur Chang - NADAAA - Project Team - Jin Kyu Lee - NADAAA - Principal in Charge - Katherine Faulkner - John Horner Photography - Photographer - John Horner - NADAAA - Project Coordinator - Gretchen Neeley - NADAAA - Project Team - Tim Wong - NADAAA - Design Principal - Nader Tehrani - NADAAA - Project Team - Thomas Tait