Ross School
East Hampton, New York
Facades, Stairs and Rails, Furniture, Glass Acoustic Clouds, Partitions and Environments in Various Materials for Three Buildings on Campus
Design, Design/Engineer, Engineer, Consult, Fabrication, Installation
Our work on the Ross School, a K-12 school founded by educational philanthropist Courtney Ross, embodies our core strength and unique value to clients: the ability to listen and deeply tune into their aspirations for the finished project. What statement do clients want to make through the environment we are helping them create? How do they want loved ones, clients or visitors to feel when they are in it? These are questions best pondered before any design is contemplated, and in our most successful projects we have pondered them early.
In the late 1990s Ross, the widow of AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Ross, envisioned a sprawling campus with an inspirational, experiential approach to learning -- with small classes of 6 to 12 students, an interdisciplinary curricula and a worldwide perspective. She commissioned a blue-ribbon panel of more than 100 respected educators to refine the philosophy and the curriculum for her yet-unbuilt school. The project’s architect introduced her to Joe, which kicked off a five-year collaboration with Ross and an expansion of our original role of providing custom architectural glass and metal fabrication.
The first step was to work with Ross to understand what she wanted her school to achieve, because we knew this would inform how it would be designed and built. Her goals included helping students share her passion for great art; creating opportunities for inquiry and fostering a sense of flexibility, curiosity and experimentation.
With these goals in mind, we collaborated with Ross and others on a master plan for a $1 billion campus that totally integrated the arts and sciences and included original art, fine reproductions and artifacts from around the world. It also included advanced technology to enable real-time interdisciplinary learning with students at Ross’s other schools in Florence and Beijing. Along with developing the master plan, we had a comprehensive role in the school’s Arts Facility, Wellness Center and Senior Studies Building.