Field House Campaign
The Putney School is currently raising money to construct a Field House, the third part of the Building the Future campaign. The Field House will meet three important needs: 1) The need for physical fitness year-round, regardless of the weather.
Physical FitnessPutney’s mission statement calls for a commitment to “vigorous athletics” and the core values articulated by founder Carmelita Hinton emphasize outdoor activities. Since 1935, Putney students have worked, run, ridden horses and skied over Putney’s hills and trails. They still do! They also play soccer, lacrosse and a great number of other individual and team sports. These activities help students learn about the potential and limits of our bodies. They teach a healthy approach to ambition, competition and teamwork. They encourage self-discipline and self-confidence, and they inspire joy and satisfaction. What has changed is that students and faculty members long for a place to run around, stay in shape, and play team sports, especially basketball, in the winter. A growing group has been commuting to other schools in the area for many years in order to practice and play basketball. Moreover, the requirements of sustaining our outdoor sports program have evolved. Students want to practice and stay in shape for their sport year round. They need a safe and appropriate place to wax their skis, fix their bicycles and store and maintain their equipment. Every year we host visiting teams and occasionally world class athletes at Putney, but we cannot offer them a place to change their clothes. Day students and off-campus faculty have no place to shower and change after afternoon activities. To fully live our commitment to vigorous athletics and outdoor activities, the time has come to provide reasonable indoor facilities. The facility will include:
Social SpaceToday’s students find it easy to spend much of their free time connected to others through electronic means and not face-to-face. The Field House will contain the relaxed and casual social space that is missing on the current Putney campus. Its close proximity to the KDU (dining room) will make it easy for students to stop by the building at any time during the day or evening. Immediately upon entering the building students will feel invited to congregate and socialize, to view or participate in the physical activities going on in the gym, or to participate in individual activities in the weight or yoga rooms. As we endeavor to teach our students about living a healthy life, we want a “wellness center” in which to be active and play together. Environmentally SustainableThe major push for this project has been to design a building that requires a minimum of energy to run, produces as little CO2 as possible, and generates as much of its own energy as possible. At Putney’s most recent board meeting, the board voted to construct a LEED Gold, “net-zero” building that would combine solar panels, photovoltaics and an air source heat pump, creating a facility which is entirely self-sustaining and may actually produce more energy than it consumes. The building will feature proven sustainability technologies to minimize water/wastewater flows, as well as to minimize energy needs. These features will include composting toilets, a hot water preheating unit and hyper insulation of the exterior walls. Given the cost of oil and wood going forward, we feel that constructing the most environmentally sound facility we can is the responsible thing to do. We also know that we have a generation of students who have been raised with serious doubts about the ability of humans to live on earth without doing damage. To give them a building that takes nothing from its environment is a way to create hope and set an example for their futures. We envision the Field House as a signature building, one that will draw visitors from around southern Vermont to gaze upon its greenness; a building that will inspire and teach our students at the same time it serves them. CostThe estimated budget for the entire project is $6.7 million. This includes construction costs of approximately $4.8 million, $728,000 in architect/contractor/consulting fees and furnishings, $250,000 for fundraising, and $850,000 to endow the facility. As of 9/05/08 more than $4.1 million has been raised for the project. This gift chart (PDF) shows what size gifts we are seeking from Putney alumni, parents, foundations and friends. TimingConstruction of the Field House is estimated to take about thirteen months. Once the permitting process is completed, we hope to begin construction in September or October 2008 and take occupancy of the building in the fall of 2009. Who is the architect?In December 2007, Putney’s board of trustees selected William Maclay Architects and Planners to design the project. Maclay is widely known for their sustainable buildings and building practices. Maclay’s designs include such remarkable Vermont buildings as the NRG Systems building in Hinesburg, the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environmental and Natural Resources, and Seventh Generation’s headquarters in Burlington. The Maclay firm has both academic collaborations (with among others Goddard College and University of Vermont) and a demonstrated track record of designing LEED certified buildings at very reasonable costs per square foot. Bill Maclay is enthusiastically working with our students in the design phase and will also involve students in the construction phase of the project. The construction firm DEW, which built both Huseby and the Currier Center, is working alongside Bill Maclay during both the design and construction phases. For information about named gift opportunities or to support this project, please contact:Christie Baskett, CFRE Director of Development 802-387-6272 cbaskett@putneyschool.org. |
 
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