St. Paul’s School Friedman Community Center

Our renovation and revitalization of a circa 1928 campus building – originally a dining hall and later the School’s art gallery – as the Friedman Community Center offers a contemporary all-school setting for faculty and student gatherings.

Window openings, previously enclosed, are reopened with new energy-efficient windows replicating original ones installed. On the main level, the original oak-paneled dining hall and lounge are refurbished as program and performance spaces, with a new café and mail center in an adjacent space. Furnishings are movable, and the custom-designed rugs roll and stack for dance events. A suspended plaster ceiling cloud provides acoustic control and incorporates new building systems.

An open central stair, with views to the adjacent river, connects the main level to the glass-walled lower level with its spaces for the Dean of Students, school publications, radio station, and student organizations. A slate-clad entrance connects the lower level to a new riverside terrace with a fire pit and seating, a new campus setting for informal student gatherings.