Building Our Future

“We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”

About 90% of quotations on the internet are falsely attributed to Winston Churchill, but this is one he actually said, after World War II, when it was time to rebuild London. At Seven Hills, we too have an opportunity to shape buildings that will later shape us. 

This is particularly true as we design a new campus-within-a campus for our Early Childhood and Lower School students. It’s been thrilling to see the addition to the Taft Early Childhood Center take shape, and to imagine how students will use new spaces such as the Specials Room.  

Later this spring, we will hold both a ribbon-cutting for the Early Childhood addition and a groundbreaking for the Doherty Lotspeich Lower School. We are building a physical manifestation of our school’s values and culture, one that will be home to generations of Stingers and that will be the engine of a world-class Lower School program.

The people whose perspectives we sought out first, and who I believe have had the biggest influence on the design of the new school, are the Lower School students themselves. 

In a series of sessions facilitated by our architects and by a team of Upper School architectural interns, Doherty and Lotspeich students identified what is most important to them in a classroom and a school. We learned so much from these sessions, and I believe that the lessons we learned are reflected in the final designs of the Doherty Lotspeich Lower School.

I’d like to highlight three elements of the building design that first emerged in those student sessions. Each of these appeared prominently on the students’ wishlists and drove our design process.

Student Wishlist Item #1: “Places for coming together as a community”

Being at Seven Hills means being part of a community, and in designing the new building we’ve prioritized creating spaces where that community can come together.  

The building’s Learning Stair allows students to interact informally or to gather as a whole Unit (such as Unit I: kindergarten and first grade) for a meeting, assembly, or performance. 

This area leads right into our new library, which I believe will be the heart of the new Lower School and another place for coming together. I love that the library can be accessed from inside or from its outside reading porch.

The new Lower School also has its own dining hall. We’ll use this not only for lunch but for assemblies and performances. When we roll the tables away, this space holds the entire K-5 student body and their teachers.

Student Wishlist Item #2: “Spaces that were built for kids”

Our new building, and in fact the whole north end of campus, is scaled for young people.  

We see this in the design of the classrooms and the common spaces alike. Each set of classrooms opens up into a shared student space for projects, socializing, and multi-age learning that we are calling the Unit Nest.  

As the students get older, the design of classrooms and Nests evolves to meet their evolving needs. I believe our students will see these classrooms and common spaces as having been built for them. In fact, it’s not just the building itself, but the whole program that is being constructed around the developmental needs of our Lower School students.  

This new building will stand for decades, and who can say what kind of wondrous innovations and inventions those decades will hold? Yet no matter what leaps and bounds technology makes, no matter how smart AI becomes, no matter how many new devices compete for our time and attention, we will always need real-life experts on childhood.  

Student Wishlist Item #3: “Access to nature and the outdoors”

We have all come to realize the critical importance for young people and adults alike of spending time in nature. The evidence is all around us: not just in dozens of recent scientific studies, but in the feeling of contentment we get when we walk through the woods or listen to birds in the trees.  

This is one of the reasons we are situating our new building in the old growth woods at the north end of the campus. 

From every side, the Lower School building provides access to nature and the outdoors. The science classroom and the Specials/MAPELLS wing both open onto outdoor classrooms. The dining hall features windows and doors that open onto outdoor seating and to the Lower School’s wooded backyard. Upper level classrooms feature floor to ceiling windows, while first floor ones open directly onto greenspace, play areas, and for our kindergartners, a tricycle race track. 

I was so impressed, too, by our students’ running interest in building in a green and sustainable way. This, too, became one of the principles and priorities of our design process, informing everything from the materials we used, to the quality of air and light, to the long-term efficiency and sustainability of the building. I’m happy to report that because of the choices we’ve made along the way, we are on track for this to be Seven Hills’ first LEED certified building.

I am grateful to the many people who have contributed to the design of this building: the  school leadership team and board members; our architects and builders; parents, alumni, and friends; and the Lower School faculty and staff. And I’m particularly grateful to the students themselves, who in dreaming big and in engaging their hearts and minds have shown all of us the way forward.

Thank you all for working together to build our future.

This is a modified version of the speech Dr. Bolton gave at the Wonder and Connection event.