PORTFOLIO

A kindergarten through grade twelve private institution, the Gill St. Bernard campus houses Lower School, Middle School and Upper School functions on a sloping site containing a variety of facilities with architectural styles reflecting the eras of their construction. The new Upper School building envisioned a unifying element for the campus and also a focal point of contemporary educational design and campus placemaking for the students it serves.

During design development, the SSP team worked closely with an interdisciplinary group of their own consulting engineers as well as Gill St. Bernard’s administration, Trustees and staff to create the best possible and most cost-efficient solution to meet their needs. This entailed several design charrettes, in which the team utilized animated 3-D flyovers to demonstrate the impact of varying facility placements on the campus’ pedestrian and vehicular flows, as well as independent studies of floor plan options and responses to site topography.

The charette process influenced the master planning element of SSP’s involvement with Gill St. Bernard’s. Recognizing that their campus will continue to evolve in order to attract and retain an increased student enrollment, Gill elected to upgrade its utility and technology infrastructures concurrent with the new Upper School construction.   In accordance with the institution’s Strategic Plan, which allows Gill to enjoy enhanced operational capacities for current facilities and the ease of future facilities upgrades and development.