The Bridge

This new 12,370 square foot academic building represents a watershed in the history of Waring School, a private liberal arts middle and high school in Beverly, MA. Serving as a new campus entry point for the school’s faculty and 150 students, the building houses classrooms, informal spaces for independent study and small-group sessions, and an auditorium designed around the All-School Meeting, a daily touchstone at Waring since the school’s founding in 1972. Meeting the Passive House standard of energy efficiency and indoor air quality, the design also addresses longstanding site-circulation and environmental challenges on the campus. The building replaces a repurposed residential structure that was plagued by periodic flooding. Sited above the flood plain, and spanning a 12-foot vertical slope, the new building provides a fully accessible path—as well as a visual and programmatic bridge—between the school’s lower and upper campuses. While modern in form and detailing, the design reflects contextual themes in its exterior materials: stucco, like that of existing campus buildings, and vertical wood boards, which blend with the wooded site. The building’s massing stacks two single-story bars, with the upper level rotated 90 degrees to create an L-shaped footprint. The All-School Meeting space occupies the “knuckle” where the two bars overlap. A large glazed opening takes in a commanding view of the lower campus, while serving also as a beacon to those entering the campus. Client: Waring School Owner’s Representative: Craig Douglas, AIA Typology: Institutional Location: Beverly, MA Design Team: Matthew O’Malia, Timothy Lock, Riley Pratt, Alexandra Pagán Contractor: L.D. Russo Consultants: Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection Engineer: VanZelm Associates; Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti; Landscape Architect: Ground; Civil Engineer: Hancock Associates EUI: 9.2 kBTU/SF/yr