Built for comfort and elegance more than a century ago, McLean’s Arlington School boasts high ceilings, stained glass windows, and original fireplaces. It was originally constructed as a home for a patient in an era when so-called “cottages” provided a homier, less institutionalized environment thought to be conducive to recovery.
As a school, however, the building has its drawbacks. There is no auditorium, so large gatherings take place in a science lab or elsewhere on the McLean campus. At lunchtime, students spread among five rooms, and no gymnasium means they trek to the hospital’s athletic facility to exercise.
But in the next few years, Arlington School, which celebrates its 60th commencement this spring, will move to McLean’s new child and adolescent campus on the south side of the hospital’s grounds.
McLean is investing $125 million in the ~90,000-square-foot campus, which is being supported by the ambitious The Way Forward Campaign. Other areas of the hospital—such as research, clinical, and educational initiatives throughout McLean’s subspecialty divisions, and technology for patient care and research—will also benefit from the campaign.
A New Campus Designed for Young People
Arlington School will share one of the new campus’ two L-shaped buildings with Pathways Academy, a day school for students ages 6 through 22 with autism spectrum disorders. Pathways, currently operating in leased space in Arlington, Massachusetts, will move back when the new campus is complete. The schools will have separate entrances, and each will have its own academic spaces.
Mary Grant, MEd, and Ethan Solomon, MEd, Arlington School co-directors
In designing the new school building, the architects made a point of understanding why Arlington School’s current building is so beloved. “The architects asked for a tour, and we enlisted students to do it,” said Arlington School Co-Director Mary Grant, MEd.
“Our students love the building, and they know its history. The architects took many of the adjectives we use to describe it—warm, welcoming, homey—and incorporated them into the new design.”
More Communal Space and Collaboration
Although Grant and Co-Director Ethan Solomon, MEd, appreciate their current space, they eagerly anticipate the new campus’ upgrades, including more space and improved technology.
A new gymnasium and fitness room mean students will no longer have to walk to the hospital’s single athletic facility where they compete for time with McLean’s adult programs; and a large multi-purpose room will allow the entire school and guests to gather comfortably. Grant envisions inviting Pathways students and young people from the clinical programs to performances hosted by Arlington School each year.
While design elements are still being finalized, Grant and Solomon have been impressed by the architects’ attention to detail, including the plan to incorporate nature into the design, ensuring that classroom windows look out onto surrounding woods.
Ample green space will accommodate raised garden beds, as well as a yurt—a circular, tent-like structure used for classes and educational groups. “A big part of what we do here at the school is develop community,” said Solomon. “The impact of these community spaces will be substantial.”
The co-location of schools and programs will enable increased collaboration and consultation. “There will be spaces for clinicians, researchers, and educators, creating a hub of integrated activities all focused on the mental health and well-being of young people,” said Chief Operating Officer Michael Macht-Greenberg, PhD, MPH, who is leading the project team.
