Voices: Dan Feigin '84 Discusses Constructing Trevor’s First Common Room

When I travel, in Manhattan and beyond, I always make a point of visiting schools.  Here in New York City, where space is at a premium, its assignment and use dramatically conveys the school’s vision, mission and priorities.  If all the seats point to the teacher and the board (whether it is smart, chalk, white or otherwise), it is immediately apparent that collaboration and communication among students and between students and teachers is not a tenet of that school.  Schools that profess "close relationships between students and faculty" but do not dedicate space, design and time to that pursuit fall short of the mark.

 

This is just one reason I am excited about the move to our new spaces in 2014.  The Academic Leadership Team has challenged the architects and designers to create spaces that promote Trevor's mission and vision, and they have succeeded.  Designed from the inside out (even though all you can see today on East 95th Street is the out!), our new space will heighten collaboration and communication.  Classrooms will strengthen what Trevor faculty yearns for - the opportunity to develop and implement a learning environment where students are at the center, the very nucleus that must determine the nature of the cell.

At Trevor, that nucleus is perhaps best nurtured in each of the hallmarked common spaces: The Common Room, The Center, The Science Center, and anywhere communication and collaboration between students, and students and faculty, are promoted and cultivated.  And, for the first time, our new upper school building on East 95th Street will be constructed from the ground up with the understanding that common spaces are the necessary nuclei for the entire structure.  Three Centers -- on contiguous floors -- will serve the Middle and High School.  Open-air staircases will connect the High School's two Centers.  With abundant natural light and enhanced openness, the Centers will achieve what we call deliberate connectivity in and between the Centers and with the satellite classrooms.  

 

This is just what Trevor faculty and students thrive on: students collaborating in academic and intellectual pursuits with faculty challenging them, inside and outside of the classroom.  Debates and conversations flowing into the common spaces; classes not ending at the bell; students and faculty appreciating that academic pursuits are not limited by class time.  

 

Every year, as hundreds of applicants tour our building and common areas, we are thrilled with how many prospective parents and students say what we have always believed: "Every school should do this."  And on East 95th Street, we will soon have the opportunity to do just that and even better.