The Research + Design Center at Beaver Country Day is the transformation of the school’s library into spaces that complement a non-traditional curriculum, support new modes of technology, and enable an accessible campus. The renovation of the traditional book stacks into an open studio for research and experimentation includes a rooftop addition of classrooms and a basement conversion to a flexible design lab with digital and analog tools for prototyping.
The renovation links several building with varied floor plates for an accessible “Ring of Knowledge,” programming circulation spaces and knitting the campus together.
The renovation created a central courtyard, with a new shingled façade wrapping the interior walls, unifying the old and the new. From the original building completed in the 1930s, four subsequent additions were built over the span of 90 years resulting in floor misalignments. Eliminating the lifts and non-compliant ramps, accessible circulation is supported by a three-story connecting bridge that sponsors a variety of break-out spaces.
R+D Classrooms are reconfigured constantly with dynamic project-based learning.
