Education Meets Environment on Equinox Mountain
Burr and Burton Academy, Founders Hall
Civic and Public
Nestled at the base of Vermont’s Equinox Mountain lies Burr and Burton Academy (BBA), a historic and independent high school with a proud tradition of educating students from Manchester, surrounding communities, and overseas. To support its mission of providing engaging and vigorous academic experiences that ignite passions and nurture creativity, BBA hired ZGF Architects in collaboration with Design Architect, KATO to design a new addition to its campus. The 25,000 square foot Founders Hall is a three-story academic building that aligns with BBA’s project-based teaching model while reflecting the town’s history and surrounding landscape. This addition will shape the future of the academy for years to come.
Connecting To Context
Founders Hall sits on BBA's upper campus, providing views up to the mountain and creating an important accessible link between lower campus and the upper athletic field. Through its contemporary form and materials of slate and contrasting metal, the building seamlessly integrates into the surrounding mountainous Vermont landscape. Founders Hall frames the western edge of a new courtyard at the heart of the campus. The courtyard plaza is made from local marble that speaks to the town’s rich history of quarrying and provides open space for large events and more intimately scaled landscaped spaces for smaller gatherings and outdoor lectures.
Location
Manchester, Vermont
Square Feet
25,000
Completion date
2021
Project Component
Architecture Services, Interior Design and Space Planning
The building rests on upper campus serving as a beacon for BBA’s achievements in elevating the possibilities of secondary education.
The Heart of The Hall
The building’s plan is organized around a central light-filled atrium which houses the school’s library. Consistent with BBA’s approach to rethinking pedagogy in all aspects of how they operate and teach, the library has been reimagined as a lively environment that encourages activity and interaction. A grand ascending staircase provides ample seating throughout, encouraging students to gather, take a break, or eat lunch together. Breaking the mold of traditional libraries that seek to “contain the loud,” BBA’s new library focuses on “containing the quiet” with nooks dedicated for individual work and study. The atrium structure is composed of a series of glu-laminated trusses that take inspiration from the heavy timber bridge construction historic to southern Vermont. The exposed beams allow students to witness the innerworkings of the building and how it was assembled. The timber reflects the surrounding scenic Equinox Highlands, while the biophilic nature of the wood offers a warm and inviting atmosphere for students.
The library’s glulam trusses twist as they ascend the hill to highlight Equinox Mountain and beyond.
A Neighborhood of Learning
The academy’s unique curriculum is focused on giving students freedom and flexibility in their education. This vision inspired a design that would accommodate an array of learning styles and teaching methods. As a result, four distinct learning neighborhoods flank the commons and promote cross-disciplinary teaching. A learning neighborhood collocates a student shop with specialty maker equipment, a computer laboratory, and a learning space. These areas are connected by operable garage doors that can be opened to form a greater Maker Commons. Three additional neighborhoods flexibly accommodate both group and individual activity. Their adaptable layouts create opportunities for disciplines to be combined or taught alongside each other as desired.
Flexible classroom planning encourages interaction and collaboration across all disciplines, supporting the school’s goal of holistic learning that prepares students for life beyond the classroom.
“The spaces inside Founders Hall will speak to the way we teach and learn at Burr and Burton.”
Mark Tashijan, Headmaster, Burr & Burton Academy
The building is crowned with a twisted bar of standing seam that creates a visual link between the academy's historic bell tower and Equinox Mountain beyond. Contained within is the Bell Tower Room—a multi-purpose space that can be used for special events, for senior capstone presentations, or for Board of Trustees meetings. The Bell Tower Room connects to an outdoor terrace, which provides access to the athletic fields behind the building. As the highest point on campus, the Bell Tower Room overlooks the site, serving as a symbolic link that looks to BBA’s future while celebrating its past.
Expansive windows, timber finishes, and a connecting terrace all work together to amplify the Bell Tower Room’s indoor-outdoor connections.
A Greener Campus
Founders Hall demonstrates environmental stewardship with hybrid strategies that are catered to a cold weather climate. The building is net-zero energy ready with a super insulated façade and all-electric HVAC system. Working with local utility provider, Green Mountain Power, the design team incorporated a thermal storage system to reduce the building energy use during peak demand periods. Natural and exposed materials including the timber structure reduce Founder Hall’s embodied carbon footprint.
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