Aoife Devereux
Website Editor

Beanbag chairs, standing-height study tables with bar stools and private study pods have replaced outdated wooden tables and well-worn chairs. The Center,which used to be a lunch hangout, has transformed into a modern, hip workspace.

“It is now a better atmosphere for learning,” junior Hailey Cusack said. “It’s no longer a location to hang out and eat it in. I feel it is now a room that encourages business and working.”

The design is by The Third Teacher+, an educational architecture firm that “designs learning environments,” according to its website.

“Our group is really focused on human behavior and the culture behind learning,” Trung Le, the lead designer for Cannon Design’s education group, Third Teacher’s parent organization, said. “Before we even think about space, we try to understand tentative human condition that will apply to design and architecture. We understand that the physical environments affects who we are and how we interact.”

Focus groups with students and staff members last spring informed the design team of what was working well and things that could be improved, but the over arching goal was to somehow reinvent the idea of The Center, according to Le.

“We identified spaces where students tended to hang out, collaborate and work together,”Le said. “In the end of the process we established that The Center is a place where the students communicate and learn together.”

Along with students studying in the refreshed space, some teachers are holding classes there, expanding their classroom spaces.

“I don’t think that I would do a whole class just out here, but because my class is so close it extends my classroom,” Paul Pryor Lorentz who teaches theology on the Third Floor,said. “I think walking out to a new space with achange of atmosphere can really affect the way we are thinking about class discussions.”

Maud Flood’s former dressing room overlooking the Marina, which previously held the head of school’s office, is now a refurnished conference room that can be reserved by students and staff members for meetings.

The Center is still awaiting custom furniture including a collaboration tables, flat screen displays, a coffee credenza, “under the cloud” furniture, transparent dry-erase boards, a connection wall and an archives installation.

“We really wanted to capture the culture, the language and the rituals that happened in that space and then think about how could we reinvent it,” Le said. “Hopefully there will be new programs, new rituals and new celebrations.”