50p
A Window on the World
It would be an understatement to say that the opening of Brentwood’s new Centre for Visual Arts, Humanities and Global Thinking is an anticipated event. Every brick added to the building has been a tangible representation of the endless hours, funds, planning, and labor dedicated to its completion for a ceremonial opening this May.
Mrs. Pennells’ tenure as Head of School has seen the completion of the Maeda Health Centre, The T. Gil Bunch Centre for Performing Arts, Allard House, Crooks Hall and the Millennium Trail. Her stunning final project, the Centre for Visual Arts, Humanities and Global Thinking, will celebrate student artists’ creative, visual expression in multi media, and every student’s thinking about global issues: Brentwood’s window on the world.
From foundation to roof, the building is a pioneer of style, efficiency, and aesthetic appeal. The blending of form and function was stressed during every aspect of design and construction, and especially when ingenious, environmentally savvy details were installed, as in Brentwood’s “LEED Gold” Crooks Hall. From HVAC systems enclosed in the beautiful bell tower, to integrated state-of-the-art materials and appliances specific to the needs of programs, the project is the Empire State Building of school houses.
In a recent school assembly, Mrs. Pennells again gave credit and abundant thanks to Governor Ward Phillips for his extraordinary volunteer commitment working with the architect, Christine Lintott, and contractor, John Knappett, throughout the process of design and construction. Mr. Phillips has also donated the handsome1906 Meneely Bell at the top of the campanile at the centre of the Brentwood village.
I recently had the privilege of a guided tour through the building with Mrs. Pennells…
Stepping through the main entry glass doors, I was awed by the building’s lofty ‘Art Gallery’, the hall’s massive ceilings amplifying the grandeur of the world, and the limitless bounds of education available to inquisitive minds. The hall will showcase student artwork, a collection of images representing the diverse perspectives of Brentwood’s international student body. Each studio or classroom, based on its purpose and its connection to earth, forest, sky and sea, will be painted in one of four shades: terracotta; green; blue and grey and the underlying symbolism these tones represent. For example, the new pottery studio will be terracotta, reflecting the idea that clay, a primary material in the evolution of ancient peoples, will continue to be drawn from the ground and be shaped by capable hands.
The building will be home to professionally personalized art studios. A new pottery, co-designed by Brentwood’s ceramics instructor, Mrs. Peggy Elmes, will provide the space and tools to satisfy a potter’s every creative whim. The incredible utilization of color and space is also true of the new photography and film spaces co-designed by instructors, Mr. Paul Fletcher and Mr. Mike Minckler. With its dark room spaces, digital work area, projection room, film studio and multi-media lab, this area will be every photographer’s dream. In addition to the large Atelier or workshop downstairs, equipped with tools for 3D design and production, 2-D art studios above will make use of floor-to-ceiling windows positioned specifically to optimize natural light from the north.
“As the performer needs an audience, so, too, the artist needs human interaction, stimulus, and the lively exchange of ideas” (Mrs. Pennells). So, rather than build a Visual Arts Centre and a separate classroom block, the instructional space needs for both have been creatively combined in one footprint to complete the oceanfront south campus, with the Bunch Centre, Crooks Hall and Campbell Common.
So, Environmental and Creative Science classes will migrate to the new building. Brentwood’s 7th lab space has several special features on two floors; a staircase connects the upper and lower spaces together to facilitate experiments needing an altitude difference. In addition to computer screen connections to the ocean floor and the school’s weather station, a ‘water fall’ formed by two slats in the roof, will flow most conspicuously during rain storms. It will inspire students to think fluidly and creatively.
As language is an integral part of understanding other cultures, modern language classes will be held in the new building: French, as Canada is bilingual; Spanish, because of the language’s importance to Canada’s neighbors to the south; and Mandarin, the language of the Pacific Rim. Comparative Government and Politics, History, Art History, Geography, and International Relations will also all be offered in classrooms promoting Global Thinking.
As an educator, Mrs. Pennells told me that she has been inspired by Harvard Professor, Howard Gardner’s, theories of multiple intelligences, and she believes that promoting whole brain, cross-disciplinary divergent and convergent thinking will help generations of Brentonians find creative solutions to global challenges. Brentwood aspires to produce well-rounded, “Renaissance” graduates, and the new building which completes the renewal of all teaching spaces on campus will promote the synergy of left and right brain creativity, thinking and problem solving.
At the end of the tour, the far end of the Gallery opens out onto the Millennium Trail, the ocean, Mt. Baker, and Brentwood’s window on the world. These visual elements reinforce the connection Brentwood impresses upon its students: everything is globally connected. This new building won’t just “replace aging facilities”. It will transport students into a new age of functionality, perspective, and design as fresh and as intuitive as the young minds who will thrive here.
Rachael K
Mrs. Pennells’ tenure as Head of School has seen the completion of the Maeda Health Centre, The T. Gil Bunch Centre for Performing Arts, Allard House, Crooks Hall and the Millennium Trail. Her stunning final project, the Centre for Visual Arts, Humanities and Global Thinking, will celebrate student artists’ creative, visual expression in multi media, and every student’s thinking about global issues: Brentwood’s window on the world.
From foundation to roof, the building is a pioneer of style, efficiency, and aesthetic appeal. The blending of form and function was stressed during every aspect of design and construction, and especially when ingenious, environmentally savvy details were installed, as in Brentwood’s “LEED Gold” Crooks Hall. From HVAC systems enclosed in the beautiful bell tower, to integrated state-of-the-art materials and appliances specific to the needs of programs, the project is the Empire State Building of school houses.
In a recent school assembly, Mrs. Pennells again gave credit and abundant thanks to Governor Ward Phillips for his extraordinary volunteer commitment working with the architect, Christine Lintott, and contractor, John Knappett, throughout the process of design and construction. Mr. Phillips has also donated the handsome1906 Meneely Bell at the top of the campanile at the centre of the Brentwood village.
I recently had the privilege of a guided tour through the building with Mrs. Pennells…
Stepping through the main entry glass doors, I was awed by the building’s lofty ‘Art Gallery’, the hall’s massive ceilings amplifying the grandeur of the world, and the limitless bounds of education available to inquisitive minds. The hall will showcase student artwork, a collection of images representing the diverse perspectives of Brentwood’s international student body. Each studio or classroom, based on its purpose and its connection to earth, forest, sky and sea, will be painted in one of four shades: terracotta; green; blue and grey and the underlying symbolism these tones represent. For example, the new pottery studio will be terracotta, reflecting the idea that clay, a primary material in the evolution of ancient peoples, will continue to be drawn from the ground and be shaped by capable hands.
The building will be home to professionally personalized art studios. A new pottery, co-designed by Brentwood’s ceramics instructor, Mrs. Peggy Elmes, will provide the space and tools to satisfy a potter’s every creative whim. The incredible utilization of color and space is also true of the new photography and film spaces co-designed by instructors, Mr. Paul Fletcher and Mr. Mike Minckler. With its dark room spaces, digital work area, projection room, film studio and multi-media lab, this area will be every photographer’s dream. In addition to the large Atelier or workshop downstairs, equipped with tools for 3D design and production, 2-D art studios above will make use of floor-to-ceiling windows positioned specifically to optimize natural light from the north.
“As the performer needs an audience, so, too, the artist needs human interaction, stimulus, and the lively exchange of ideas” (Mrs. Pennells). So, rather than build a Visual Arts Centre and a separate classroom block, the instructional space needs for both have been creatively combined in one footprint to complete the oceanfront south campus, with the Bunch Centre, Crooks Hall and Campbell Common.
So, Environmental and Creative Science classes will migrate to the new building. Brentwood’s 7th lab space has several special features on two floors; a staircase connects the upper and lower spaces together to facilitate experiments needing an altitude difference. In addition to computer screen connections to the ocean floor and the school’s weather station, a ‘water fall’ formed by two slats in the roof, will flow most conspicuously during rain storms. It will inspire students to think fluidly and creatively.
As language is an integral part of understanding other cultures, modern language classes will be held in the new building: French, as Canada is bilingual; Spanish, because of the language’s importance to Canada’s neighbors to the south; and Mandarin, the language of the Pacific Rim. Comparative Government and Politics, History, Art History, Geography, and International Relations will also all be offered in classrooms promoting Global Thinking.
As an educator, Mrs. Pennells told me that she has been inspired by Harvard Professor, Howard Gardner’s, theories of multiple intelligences, and she believes that promoting whole brain, cross-disciplinary divergent and convergent thinking will help generations of Brentonians find creative solutions to global challenges. Brentwood aspires to produce well-rounded, “Renaissance” graduates, and the new building which completes the renewal of all teaching spaces on campus will promote the synergy of left and right brain creativity, thinking and problem solving.
At the end of the tour, the far end of the Gallery opens out onto the Millennium Trail, the ocean, Mt. Baker, and Brentwood’s window on the world. These visual elements reinforce the connection Brentwood impresses upon its students: everything is globally connected. This new building won’t just “replace aging facilities”. It will transport students into a new age of functionality, perspective, and design as fresh and as intuitive as the young minds who will thrive here.
Rachael K
75p
