Metairie Park Country Day School

A master plan completed by the firm in 1998 identified a multiple phase upgrade of the K-12 Country Day campus, which is set in a residential neighborhood in Metairie, Louisiana. The campus is memorable and compelling in its intimate scale and simple organization: a series of linked landscaped courtyards defined by one and two story Louisiana-vernacular inspired buildings of brick and weatherboard siding. The first three phases of the master plan, a 120 car parking lot, an Athletics Addition and a new Middle School, were completed in August 2003. The $5M Athletics Addition involved the expansion of the existing school Gymnasium by one basketball court for a total of three. Other athletic program elements such as Locker and Training Rooms were combined with arts related elements (Choral and Dance Classrooms) in a two story wing that wraps around and masks the bulk of the Gymnasium from the main campus courtyard. The new $4M Middle School, linked to the Athletics wing by a two story walkway, forms a small courtyard for grades 6-8. The courtyard is linked to the main campus courtyard by a breezeway and is defined by two levels of outdoor galleries that shelter the classrooms and provide circulation and exit corridors. The courtyard is occupied by a freestanding, sculptural stair tower which gives the Middle School courtyard a sense of enclosure and privacy from an adjacent Upper School courtyard. The buildings are of steel frame construction with local St. Joe brick and cast stone veneer. The Middle School has custom double-hung windows milled of spanish cedar in keeping with the wood windows of the main campus. The Athletics Addition provides a terminus to the campus proper and balances the large Lower School, built in the 1960’s, across the courtyard.