Our Plan in Action: Moving Ahead with Campus Renovations
Plans for campus renovations at Burke’s are moving ahead! Last year, the 21st-Century Learning Spaces Committee (a team of trustees, faculty, staff and parents) worked with two sets of consultants – the architectural firm EHDD and the design-thinking firm NOTOSH – to help assess our needs at Burke’s. As outlined in our recent Strategic Plan, curricular and professional development is central to great teaching, but we also need to give teachers the types of spaces they need. To foster creativity, collaboration and critical thinking, a school requires flexible, efficient and inspirational spaces. Building upon the community outreach and committee discussions of last year, we determined to focus upon improving three main areas
on campus: the Lunchroom, the Lower School classrooms/courtyards and the front entry to Burke’s.
We are pleased to announce that we have hired the architecture firm EHDD and the landscape firm Surface Design to explore and execute design solutions for these areas. In addition to providing more nimble furniture, lighting and technology in our classrooms (revisit the description of our LS classroom prototypes here), our goal is to create a new “heart” for our campus – a multi-purpose room for eating, teaching, assemblies, parent education and community-building activities of many kinds. This central multi-purpose space will be transformed into a light-filled lunchroom which will also be a more effective performance and public speaking venue, with a stage that can be transformed into a working classroom to help facilitate project based learning. Courtyard areas both in the Upper School and outside the Lower School classrooms also have the potential to be more effective outdoor “rooms” for gathering, playing, experimenting and the like. In addition, we would like the front entry area of our campus to provide better visual clues regarding our school’s mission. Aside from architectural changes, graphics, display cases, better seating areas and landscaping might be some solutions here.
Our committee will work closely with both design teams to finalize plans by the end of the school year, with the goal of starting construction in the next couple of years. We look forward to sharing more information with you as the school year progresses.
Burke's mission is to educate, encourage and empower girls. Our school combines academic excellence with an appreciation for childhood so that students thrive as learners, develop a strong sense of self, contribute to community, and fulfill their potential, now and throughout life.
Burke's admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.