Charging Forward
By Baird Cotsakis
The Charger brings you inside information detailing the Academic Center and how it will improve student life for generations to come.
With an impressive four story steel frame looming over campus, much of the talk around Providence Day has been centered around the new building. The Academic Center will vastly change the lives of the Upper and Middle School community next year, and this change has brought a lot of excitement.
Many rumors have been circulating about the new building, most of them true; however some are not. The Charger sat down with Head of Upper School Eric Hedinger to get factual and up to date information regarding the campus improvements.
The most common rumors have been about the completion date. Although Hedinger could not guarantee a definite move-in date, he said that the Academic Center is the number one priority, and it is on schedule to open in the fall of 2017. In addition to fluctuating building schedules, the certificate of occupancy offers another layer of uncertainty. The certificate of occupancy makes sure that the building is up to code; however, it could take a while to obtain and therefore delay the move in date.
In order to prepare for this uncertainty, the administration will create two completely different schedules during the registration process. One schedule will be for if the new building is ready by the first day of school, and the other schedule will be for if it is not ready. In the latter case, classes will temporarily remain in the West Wing, and a plan for moving teachers and classes into the new building would be put into action.
Once the construction is done and logistics are figured out, students will finally be able to experience the benefits of the Charging Forward Campaign. The Academic Center will truly change the way students learn and interact with each other.
The first floor will offer an exciting new gathering space for the whole school. The grab and go style “Global Cafe” will take some stress off the main cafeteria, and it will also be a place for students to relax and study. The school is still figuring out who the vendor will be, although some possibilities include Panera, Starbucks, or Flik. Hedinger mentioned that it will not be your typical café, “By calling it a Global Cafe a regular ham and cheese is probably not what we would want. We want the world’s foods to be expressed through it, similar to the Take Three Program we have now.”
The extensive seating surrounding the café and the terrace outside could be a new popular study hall area for juniors and seniors. Also, the quad created in between the library and the academic center will be a new space for students to congregate, similar to brick pathway outside the cafeteria.
In addition to a new school café, the first floor will have a 175 seat lecture hall. The space will open up to the second floor, so there will be extra viewing available from above. The lecture hall will likely have innovative technology to make presentations more impactful. Matt Scully, Director of Digital Integration & Innovation, mentioned in an interview with The Charger that it could have high def laser projectors or even a video wall. The whole idea is that the presenter will be able to break the area up many different ways in order to communicate his or her message more effectively. The lecture hall will have retractable walls that can open up to the café seating area. This would create a foyer type area that could be used for events or even dances in the future. The first floor will also house the new Charger Bookstore, some math classrooms, and office spaces.
Middle School life will be centered on the second floor. All Middle School history and English courses will be on this floor. In addition, a Middle School lounge could provide a place for students to gather and relax, while also giving them their own identity. Middle schoolers will finally have a place to call their own.
The third floor will be the equivalent of the second floor except for the Upper School. The space will have all upper school history and English classrooms. Since English and history are so closely linked, it makes sense to have them together. The third floor will also have the new senior lounge. Despite it being smaller than what some had hoped, it is guaranteed to have at least one ping pong table, per school tradition. In order to get student input into the new space, Hedinger reached out to every junior advisee group and had lunch with them. His primary goal was to listen to student voices, and he is working on implementing some of the more feasible ideas. Through the feedback, he realized that instead of it being a study environment, most students want it to be a place to relax and escape academics. With that in mind, the furniture selection will reflect that and be more laid back and comfortable.
The fourth and final floor will have all World Language departments. This will be the first time all of the world languages will be together and not spread out all across campus. Hedinger expresses his excitement by saying “I cannot be more ecstatic to know that the world languages will be together as a whole team.” This will provide better communication and collaboration among the different language teachers and hopefully enhance student learning.
The fourth floor will also have The Center for the Art and Science of Teaching, Learning, and Entrepreneurship also known as The Center. This space, run by Scully, will search for new ways to improve teaching and learning, while also focusing on entrepreneurship. Scully describes its mission best by saying “We want to mind the gap between who we are and who we aspire to be. Providence Day wants to be world class and be the best that we can be in all of these different areas. The Center will figure out how we can do that. It all breaks down to three pieces: identifying opportunities, building solutions, and studying the impact of those solutions to make sure that we are actually achieving what we set out to achieve.”
The Center isn’t just striving to make PDS a better place, it also wants to help the surrounding communities. This can be achieved through the entrepreneurial sector. As Scully puts it, “The Center focuses on how we can get better as a community. The entrepreneurship side of that is how we also then leverage that to help other people be better, but at the same time providing a benefit for us. Similar to how Toms sells a pair and donates a pair. We want to have that same benevolent entrepreneurship spirit where we could do some consulting work with another school, and that money might come in and allow us to share some of our resources with a public school that needs the resources, or create a free workshop, or do something else that benefits the community.”
The Center will have the equivalent of three classroom spaces on the fourth floor. One end will be geared towards presentations, and another space will be a laboratory classroom where teachers can test new ideas. The laboratory classroom will have cameras to film teachers’ test trials, so that the teachers can study the film and see what works and what doesn't, similar to how coaches analyze game film. The third area will be all about collaboration, creativity, design, and problem solving.
The classrooms in this building will truly be “the classroom of tomorrow,” as Hedinger put it. The Hive and the Think Tank in the library are the best models for what the new classrooms could look like. The classrooms will be as dynamic as ever. There will no longer be a hard front of the classroom anymore. With writable walls and a movable smart board, the new classrooms will be able to adapt to any situation. Hedinger says, “The ability for the room to change for many different environments is key.” In some classrooms there will even be a glassed-in side room, which will provide a space for students to have their own quiet area, especially useful for group work. The furniture for the classrooms will be one of the two prototypes in the King Room. The new building will have all new furniture with natural and earthy tones so that it is comfortable and pleasant.
With all of this change, it opens up new possibilities for other areas. The West Wing will be sold to another school. This new space will be utilised as a parking lot in the short term; however, the long term visions for the space are endless. It could become athletic fields, a new lower school building, or a new counseling center; the possibilities are exciting. The next generation will have to envision how to best use that space in the future.
Some other areas that can be repurposed are some classrooms in the DH building, the current senior lounge, and the current bookstore. With some math classrooms being moved to the academic center, there will be new opportunities for STEM based science classrooms in the Dixon Hemby Technology Center. The current senior lounge could become the new school copy center. As for the current bookstore, it could be new athletic offices or perhaps adapted into the Wellness Center. These new opportunities allow administration the flexibility to decide what would be the most necessary and beneficial use of these spaces.
The Academic Center won’t be the only improvement to the PDS campus. The Campus Gateway building will encompass administration and college guidance offices, so students will arrive and leave through this building. A 250-spot parking deck will wrap around the Gateway Center and be open for teacher and visitor parking. This will hopefully fix the campus’ parking predicament.
Through the opportunities created by the Charging Forward Campaign, Providence Day’s campus will completely transform in the coming year. These improvements will enhance student learning and development for years to come. In addition, the doubling of Providence Day’s endowment will ensure financial stability in the future and open up more opportunities. As the Charging Forward website states, the campaign will truly “Make a Lasting Impact.”
The Academic Center is the number one priority, and it is on schedule to open in the fall of 2017.
The school is still figuring out who the vendor will be, although some possibilities include Panera, Starbucks, or Flik.
The new senior lounge is guaranteed to have at least one ping pong table, per school tradition.
“We want to mind the gap between who we are and who we aspire to be." -Matt Scully
“The ability for the room to change for many different environments is key.” -Eric Heddinger
Construction of Academic Center time lapse. Courtesy of Providence Day School.
Layout of Academic Center first floor. Photo courtesy of Baird Cotsakis.
Layout of Academic Center third floor. Photo courtesy of Baird Cotsakis.
Layout of Academic Center fourth floor. Photo courtesy of Baird Cotsakis.
The Campus Gateway building will encompass administration and college guidance offices, so students will arrive and leave through this building.
The Charger, March 2017
Back to Table of Contents