Phase 1 of the two-year project of building the Spence 412 Campus, a new athletic and educational facility located at 412 East 90^th Street has officially begun. In announcing the news, Head of School Bodie Brizendine says: “After two years of a thoughtful and comprehensive planning and approvals process, we are fully in the implementation phase and the demolition of the existing structure is underway.”

 

Since 2016, a team of architects from Rogers Partners has been working with The Spence School to design the new campus. The six-story building will include a regulation-size gymnasium for volleyball, basketball and badminton, featuring 450-plus spectator seating capacity. There will be nine squash courts, split between two floors, with one of the courts serving as an exhibition court with tiered, spectator seating. A student center, café and Spence team rooms and athletic offices will share space on the third floor. And on the top floor, a multipurpose room for dance and performing arts will be adjacent to a center for ecology and interdisciplinary learning.

 

“Spence 412 is indeed a triumph that opens a vista of opportunities for athletics, ecology and the arts in the near future,” says Brizendine, adding that in tandem with the two-year construction project, “we are fully immersed in developing the K-12 curriculum that will fulfill the enormous programmatic possibilities of this new campus.”