The Putney School is building a field house. It’s the third in a series of buildings intended to expand the student boarding population (Huseby House Dormitory), provide a home for our performing and visual arts programs and presentations (Michael S. Currier Center), and augment our student athletic programs and employee health opportunities (Field House). Check in here over the coming months to see how the design, planning and building progress. To make a donation in support of the Field House, please call 802-387-6272 or email
The Putney School Board of Trustees approved the construction of the Field House at the meeting last weekend as a “net zero” building. This means that it will produce as much or more energy as it consumes on an annual basis. Those of you who were following the conversations during the year realize that this seemed like a very ambitious goal in September. It means a more expensive building to construct, but a much less expensive one to run, and one which emits almost no CO2. The board believes that it would be irresponsible to add to the school’s dependence on fossil fuels, and that construction of this unusual building is consistent with Putney’s mission of sustainable living. The Field House will be heated with an air source heat pump system, which is a technology that has only become efficient enough for a building like this in the last few years. The electricity to run the pump will be provided by photovoltaic panels. Groundbreaking will be in the fall, when all the needed permits are in. In the meantime, we are still raising money for the building, so those of you who were waiting to see if we were going to create a net zero building before you contributed need wait no longer! Many thanks to all of you who have already helped this project move from dream to reality.
William Maclay and Associates visited the campus for a fourth charrette on May 21. Since the variables of siting, programming and exterior shape have been presented, discussed and decided, this charrette addressed the details of interior and exterior finishing and the design of the social room. The finishing of the social room will be largely student driven and much has already been discussed on a special email forum and during school council meetings. Several students were on hand for the Wednesday afternoon charrette and contributed ideas to the designers to begin working into their drawings. Most of what occurs between now and ground breaking is the refinement of drawings for the various permitting entities who have to be satisfied before we put shovels in the dirt. We’ll let you know as soon as we can when that will be.
The boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams posed within the snowy confines of the proposed field house site upon returning from March break, most likely wishing they had a dry spot in which to practice. The poles mark the corners of the building and their lengths correspond to the building height at each of these points. With this framework in place, the school community is better able to envision how the field house will appear once it is completed.
Bill Maclay and his merry band of architects, environmental experts and assistants visited again today to meet with the building committee and conduct another charrette. The topic of today’s charrette was elevation options. We looked at four possibilities and agreed that the fourth was the most aesthetically pleasing while retaining the option of adding solar panels to the south facing slope. There was also some discussion about traffic flow and trying to keep muddy cleats from the basketball court, while keeping the equipment rooms accessible to coaches and team captains. And on cold, blowing February days such as this one, the idea of an enclosed walkway from the KDU lobby was looking like a winner. We’ll keep you up to date with the latest field house news, so keep checking back. 
William Maclay Architects met with students and members of The Putney School community for a second charrette (the first was to work on siting and energy efficiency considerations) on Wednesday. The field house site is just northwest of the KDU and the program space has been roughly determined. This exercise was to figure out how all the pieces of the program space puzzle go together. Break out groups of students, faculty and staff used scaled paper fragments on a site map to make suggestions of where the locker space should be with regard to the weight room, waxing room, composting toilets, social space and so on. It’s a simple exercise, but not easy. The Maclay crew took ample notes as each group presented its solution and will return to us on February 20 for another opportunity for the community to weigh in on the design process.
To see more images from the day, have a look here: Charrette #2
To Putney Board of Directors and Building Committee members
Friends,
We would like to report on the progress of the field house for the record and for those of you who were not at the board meeting in Putney this past weekend.
The Committee:
The Field House Committee has evolved into a Building Committee that will be co-chaired by Bob Raynolds and Pete Stickney. Pete will provide the day-to-day interface between the committee and the project. Lies Pasterkamp will continue to be the key link to the faculty. Student members of the committee will help tie the students to the project. The present committee membership is listed at the bottom of this memo.
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Architect and Putney School Trustee George Heller ‘42 came to assembly this morning to tell us about progess on our upcoming field house design and construction project and to answer questions from students, faculty and staff.George started by saying the field house concept is not a new one. “The seeds have been in the ground for over 20 years,” says George. He then explained that the site has been chosen near the KDU because of the potential multi-purpose aspect of the building, proximity to playing fields, southern exposure for light and passive solar opportunites, and for keeping it open for informal socializing during the foul weather months.
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Friends,
The Field House committee met December 1st at Putney. We gathered in the music room of the Currier Center and as blocks of sunlight shifted across the room, we heard presentations from five very well-qualified groups vying to design and construct our new Field House.
The following day we reconvened, and after much discussion, selected the design and construction team of William Maclay Architects and Planners and DEW Construction. This past week has been spent double-checking references and preparing a letter of intent, We are at a stage where this information can and should be shared with any interested parties.
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