From the Ground Up
With one major construction project continuing and another breaking into light on the eastern horizon, dorms are going and coming these days at CdeP, as the School continues to upgrade its homes-away-from-home for students.
With one major construction project continuing and another breaking into light on the eastern horizon, dorms are going and coming these days at CdeP, as the School continues to upgrade its homes-away-from-home for students.
From the first careful dismantling of old, notched and nicked closet doors through the full-on razing that left a rubble pile resembling a third Twin Peak, the Lower School resurrection is “on schedule and will be substantially complete by early October,” according to Chuck Evans, Director of Building and Grounds. Move-in (actually move-over, from Middle School, where they’ll start the year) by the 9th grade boys and faculty families—the Perrys and the Mahoneys—will likely be at Thanksgiving. This minute, concrete for the courtyard is slurping out of hoses, and boulders are being nudged into place to make way for the larger landscaping features. Soon, the office trailer will exit the campus—and the space downhill from the dorm, towards Casa, will also be restored and improved.
Meanwhile, the Hill Dormitory Project continues in the early phases of planning and design, with maestro campus master planner Roberta Jorgensen, FAIA, LEED (of the award-winning architectural firm of Rossetti Jorgensen) heading up the effort. Some of the issues recently wrangled by Jorgensen and a small group of administrators, faculty, and trustees: how to cope with the 30-foot grade differential from the top of the building site to the bottom, how to connect the dorms’ wings and faculty homes, and how to create both equity and maximum community among the roughly three dozen rooms. Critically, how do we balance honoring privacy concerns with preserving extraordinary views? Then there’s that enormous venerable, century-old oak: how to incorporate it respectfully into the design? Oh—and the ubiquitous rocks (remember: Casa de Piedra) already present: how best to use them as part of the landscaping plan?
Challenges and opportunities—especially as they coincide with a focus on passive sustainability—seem to excite Ms. Jorgensen equally. “Every time I talk to someone at Thacher I learn more about the traditions—and they are fascinating. How can we incorporate as many of those as possible, but design with the future in mind? It’s a fun project and it’s an amazing site.”
Back to the present, with an eye on the future, Darrell Jones, New Projects Superintendent, reports, “We hope to be in the position to begin demolition [of Topa Topa and Matilija dormitories] next spring--and start construction at the beginning of the summer,” with hopeful anticipation of occupancy by Opening Day, 2009.
Back
From the first careful dismantling of old, notched and nicked closet doors through the full-on razing that left a rubble pile resembling a third Twin Peak, the Lower School resurrection is “on schedule and will be substantially complete by early October,” according to Chuck Evans, Director of Building and Grounds. Move-in (actually move-over, from Middle School, where they’ll start the year) by the 9th grade boys and faculty families—the Perrys and the Mahoneys—will likely be at Thanksgiving. This minute, concrete for the courtyard is slurping out of hoses, and boulders are being nudged into place to make way for the larger landscaping features. Soon, the office trailer will exit the campus—and the space downhill from the dorm, towards Casa, will also be restored and improved.
Meanwhile, the Hill Dormitory Project continues in the early phases of planning and design, with maestro campus master planner Roberta Jorgensen, FAIA, LEED (of the award-winning architectural firm of Rossetti Jorgensen) heading up the effort. Some of the issues recently wrangled by Jorgensen and a small group of administrators, faculty, and trustees: how to cope with the 30-foot grade differential from the top of the building site to the bottom, how to connect the dorms’ wings and faculty homes, and how to create both equity and maximum community among the roughly three dozen rooms. Critically, how do we balance honoring privacy concerns with preserving extraordinary views? Then there’s that enormous venerable, century-old oak: how to incorporate it respectfully into the design? Oh—and the ubiquitous rocks (remember: Casa de Piedra) already present: how best to use them as part of the landscaping plan?
Challenges and opportunities—especially as they coincide with a focus on passive sustainability—seem to excite Ms. Jorgensen equally. “Every time I talk to someone at Thacher I learn more about the traditions—and they are fascinating. How can we incorporate as many of those as possible, but design with the future in mind? It’s a fun project and it’s an amazing site.”
Back to the present, with an eye on the future, Darrell Jones, New Projects Superintendent, reports, “We hope to be in the position to begin demolition [of Topa Topa and Matilija dormitories] next spring--and start construction at the beginning of the summer,” with hopeful anticipation of occupancy by Opening Day, 2009.
More About Thacher
Interested in learning more about Thacher? Sign up for a virtual visit here.
A college preparatory boarding school for grades 9-12
Thacher is committed to maintaining an atmosphere of respect and dignity free from harassment. Our school does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national, and ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, disability, or any other characteristics protected by state or federal law in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, tuition assistance, and athletic and other school-administered programs, or any other basis in law.