Page 32 - spaces4learning, July/August 2020

spaces4learning BUILDING BLUEPRINTS
SETTING THE STAGE
FOR SUCCESS
Extensive Renovation Adds State-of-the- Art Theater to Massachusetts School
By Thomas Renner
THE MISSION STATEMENT AT MIDDLESEX SCHOOL in Massachusetts has remained consistent since the school’s founding in 1901. The primary objective stated by Frederick Winsor, the school’s founder, is to “find the promise that lies hidden” in every student. “That message of individuality, hope and possibility guides us today,” the school says on its website.
A recently renovated and expanded theater and visual arts center will help the school deliver on that mission. Last year, the school unveiled the new Bass Arts Pavilion and Danoff Visual Arts Center. At the center of the Bass Arts Pavilion lies the Kaye Main Stage Theatre, where seating capacity was expanded by about 100 seats to 495. The theater includes a balcony and will allow the entire student body, teachers and administrators to fit comfortably as an audience for perfor- mances, guest speakers and school assemblies.
“We won’t have to create special places for musicians on stage any more or remove seats from the audience for them,” said Steve McKeown, Middlesex School’s project manager.
Photo by Sarah Hamlin/Everchangingphoto. The vents were equipped with electric motors that allow them to be opened and closed remotely for ventilation.
Commitment to the Arts
Middlesex has a wealth of academic, recreational and social outlets for its body of approximately 400 students. How many high schools, for instance, include a dock where students can grab rays or a largemouth bass?
The arts, however, are strongly rooted in Middlesex’s history and its academic plan. Its list of graduates includes Ins- tagram founder Kevin Systrom, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Conrad Aiken, and a host of well-known actors such as Steve Carell, Jessica Tuck and William Hurt.
“There’s a commitment to theater and the arts,” McKeown said. “It’s not any different than our commitment to clubs, sciences or athletics. We provide spaces for students who
are interested in a variety of things. Some students may be
interested in ceramics, so we have a space for that. Or visual arts, drawing, painting or digital arts. There’s a lot of cool opportunities for students to find their promise.”
The theater is also “the linchpin” for the campus, according to Michelle Oishi, the lead architect on the project for CBT Architects. “It’s the continuation of the academic ribbon.”
Oishi and her team faced multiple challenges in design- ing the new theater and arts center. They needed to install a long list of new features desired by the school, but also faced environmental constraints, an inability to expand the existing footprint and were required to preserve the theater’s original perimeter walls and roof structure. It was an ambitious and comprehensive project, but also long overdue. The theater had not been updated since the 1960s.
“Students will enjoy the upgrade that modernity requires,” said Kathy Giles, the former Head of School. “We designed these buildings to provide our students with great, well-lit space and now the facilities’ features reflect the sophistication and excellence of the work that’s being done there.”
Photo by Sarah Hamlin/Everchangingphoto. The project includes six double-leaf acoustical smoke vents manufactured by The BILCO Company.
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