The Field School
Washington, DC
Cox Graae + Spack Architects

A grassy hilltop offers a splendid site for this high school campus

© David Cox

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This private, grades 7-12 school for 325 students had outgrown its former cramped quarters in a pair of city townhouses and expanded to a ten-acre residential site in the northwest section of Washington, D.C. The new site included an historic 1937 Art Deco residence that occupied the crest of a hill overlooking adjacent public parkland.

The steep hillside was transformed to permit maintaining the natural open landscape, while providing a 65,000-square-foot academic campus, outdoor student spaces, parking, internal service road circulation, and a level athletic playing field. The new campus includes the restored house as a distinctive central reception and administrative function with student lounges and locker hubs on a lower level. Two separate academic wings extend outwardly from the house, forming a U-shaped plan that frames views of the Washington Monument and downtown in the distance. The residentially scaled white brick structures, along with the house, form a small hill-town campus of hip-roofed white pavilions in the open green landscape. The new buildings step down the hillside and encompass a series of outdoor terraces and courtyards for student gatherings. Two large assembly spaces, a 110-seat black box theater, and a 200-seat gymnasium are tucked into the hillside at a lower elevation to reduce their scale.

Interior academic spaces are configured to avoid an institutional appearance. Angled corridors often bend into quirky irregular spaces with built-in benches and banks of windows. Stairways are pleasant, light-filled spaces with views of the landscape. Classrooms are of many different shapes and sizes that reflect the way the buildings fit into the hillside.

Formal name of Project:
The Field School

Location:
Washington, DC

Gross square footage:
50,395 sq ft on 10.5 acre site

Total construction cost:
$13 million

Owner:
The Field School

Architect:
Cox Graae + Spack Architects
2909 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007
202.965.7070 (v)
202.965.7144 (f)
www.cgsarchitects.com