Fort Worth Country Day
Fort Worth Country Day has broken ground on its new $25 million state-of-the-art 32,720-square-foot lower school.
The new structure will replace the original school built in 1964.
It will retain the name Annie Richardson Bass Lower School.
“Our new Lower School is designed to create exceptional learning environments within classrooms and communal spaces while delivering dramatic improvements for safety and efficiency,” said Eric Lombardi, head of school at FWCD in a release.
“It will have a strong connection to our campus’s amazing outdoors, while also giving our faculty and students first-class spaces to inspire the highest level of elementary-appropriate learning.”
Heading up the design and construction on this new building project is San Antonio-based Lake Flato Architects. Dallas-based Hocker Design is in charge of the landscape architecture along with Fort Worth-based Linbeck as general contractor. The estimated completion date for this new lower school is set for the spring of 2025.
Country Day serves families K-12 on its 104-acre campus in southwest Fort Worth.
The school opened on Sept. 9, 1963, with 210 students and 17 teachers on a 10-acre campus with three original buildings — one housing classrooms, one housing administration, and one housing the cafeteria.
Grades one through nine were in attendance that day. A grade was added each year after until reaching the 12th grade. A kindergarten was also added in 1964.
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In 1964, 80 additional acres were purchased, and FWCD opened the doors to the then brand-new Annie Richardson Bass Lower School. Sixty years later, FWCD is the home of 1,097 students and 159 full-time faculty members across 13 buildings.
“The fact that after less than a year of operation, we have to build another building is indicative of the need for a school of this type,” said Perry R. Bass, the first chairman of the board of trustees at the school, in 1964. “Also, it is a recognition of the need of the community. We are grateful for the public support we have received.”
The first lower school was designed by Preston M. Geren and Associates.
Peter Schwartz, a Princeton man, Class of 1936, was the school’s founding headmaster. He served there until his retirement from the school in 1979.
The new structure will include a modern, light-filled, indoor-outdoor learning environment. Tuned acoustics and some upgraded tech are also in the plans for this build. The new technology being placed inside the school will help expand the school’s delivery of future-focused experiences and activities.
A 2,130-square-foot library includes floor-to-ceiling windows, a fireplace, reading nooks, adaptive furniture, soft seating, and sliding glass doors that open to an outdoor courtyard built around a giant chinkapin oak tree. Other upgrades include two dedicated science labs, a collaborative/makerspace, and study rooms for tutoring and smaller breakout sessions.
The wings that make up this new structure will include covered outdoor learning spaces, as well as a playground with a sports court and play structures.
The building itself will include skylights, light shelves, LED lighting, rainwater collection, and drought-tolerant landscaping with native shrubs, grasses, and water-conservation technologies. Inside the classrooms and learning spaces, students will also have access to flat screen displays.
Student safety is another key element in the construction, including a new communications and security platforms with digital signage, two-way paging, a high-tech intercom system, and proximity-controlled exterior doors. In the commons area will be a safety shelter, with windows and walls built to withstand 250 mph winds.
Also in the plans are offices for academic support coordinators, health and wellness counselors, as well as faculty/staff meeting rooms, and multiple communal and collaborative spaces.