Brooks School
Center for the Arts

The siting of the School’s two-building Center for the Arts at the campus crossroads honors the prominent role that the fine arts and performing arts play in the day-to-day life of Brooks School.

The predominance of white clapboard buildings with steeply pitched roofs throughout the campus set the design context and scale for the massing and exterior materials of the two-level arts building.

An interior circulation spine – the Arts Street – connects all activities in both buildings, also hosting group pinups, impromptu performances, and inter-departmental programming. The west building accommodates teaching spaces for music and fine arts. The east building includes a film studio, a 380-seat proscenium teaching theater, as well as theater-support spaces and a black box used for drama rehearsals, yoga, and dance classes.

The Center’s building footprint afforded an opportunity to create an exterior courtyard and lawn with adjacent buildings, a campus destination for gathering, outdoor art projects, and tented events.