Hardwick, Massachusetts, USA
ARC designs a student learning center to support all Eagle Hill School students with learning disabilities, celebrating their difference and embodying the spirit of the project concept.
The team sought to craft flexible spaces to support students’ unique constellation of talents, and the belief that learning is about making connections—physical, intellectual, and emotional.
The concept of the PJM STEM+ Center is to create a bridge between the academic core and a student life hub.
The project was awarded a 2021 American Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Natural rhythms and campus circulation paths were supported by sitting the building on existing desire lines to draw students into the building and promote active engagement, direct connections to learning spaces, and an abundance of natural daylight and views to foster a sense of connection with the campus and rural landscape.
The design team sought to reify the project vision into moments expressive of the EHS pedagogy.
In respect to the diversity of learning styles, breakout spaces of varying scales were introduced to support personal reflection, as well as a large and small collaborative group activities.
The development of the new Math Core was emblematic of the collaborative dialogue between EHS and the team.
In this space, the group began to reconsider the idea of a conventional whiteboard, and from this seed, developed the concept of a physical Mobius strip; a three-dimensional math principle that would become a collaborative thinking space.
This vision evolved into an Artist in Residence project developed with EHS students and is exemplary of the value of dialogue and an iterative design process.
Project: PJM STEM+ Center
Architects: ARC / Architectural Resources Cambridge
Client: Eagle Hill School
Contractor: Consigli Construction Co., Inc.
Photographers: Jeff Goldberg/Esto
