The Madeira School, a girls’ boarding and day school outside of Washington, DC, selected Bowie Gridley Architects to renovate and expand their five historic dormitory facilities.  Working with the school and its project manager, BGA designed 5,000 sf of additions and 68,460 sf of renovations among the five dorms.  Renovations included adding a second faculty apartment per dorm, upgrading toilet facilities, ADA/life safety upgrades and moving the Commons to the first floor for each dorm.  The addition contains accessory offices and support rooms. The project was completed over two summers in a series of phases. Site work was also part of the renovation project.  The main ‘Oval’ was upgraded to include new granite curbing, paving, plantings and the adjacent quad was redesigned to include more usable gathering spaces.

Lowell School, located on an eight-acre campus adjacent to Rock Creek Park in northwest Washington, DC, made the strategic decision to create a new Middle School (grades 6 through 8) to complement its existing Elementary School program. After an extensive master planning process, BGA concluded that the best solution was to renovate the existing Parkside Building. Lowell intended to grow the middle school program over a three to four year period, so a multi-phased renovation plan was implemented. After a series of modest, carefully targeted interior renovations, the final phase included a major addition and complete renovation/configuration of the existing interior. With a focus on a STEM curriculum—combining inquiry, logical reasoning, collaboration, and investigation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—the new 36,300 sf Parkside Middle School houses classrooms, a science lab and maker spaces, library, art studios, gathering and study spaces, and a black box theater.