Designing Possibilities

POMFRET’S LONG-AWAITED CENTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND DESIGN IS FINALLY TAKING SHAPE.

BECKY GRASSI LEANS AGAINST the construction fence. She is the event manager responsible for this photo opp. On one side of the fence, the Ambrose Monell III Science Building stands empty and silent. On the other side, a line of sledgehammers is waiting. Each hammer is four feet long with a solid hickory handle and a heat-treated high carbon steel head. It is a tool for breaking things.

On this late February morning, a sharp wind is blowing across the valley, and the air still has plenty of winter left in it. While Grassi readies the scene, a group of twenty or so spectators pace around, killing time. They have their collars turned up and their hands thrust deep in their coat pockets. Among them is Brenda Bullied, the director of facilities. She is the person most responsible for making sure this project goes well. Beside her is Josh Lake, a smart, cheerful guy who heads up the Science Department. He has been instrumental in helping everyone understand what the new science center can and should be.

Not far away, architects Ann Beha and Jason Bowers are also waiting. They are friendly and engaging. Beha founded Annum Architects more than thirty years ago. They have spent months planning for this moment, and they have imagined it for many more. Finally, there is Project Superintendent Chris Kulak and Project Manager Hector Bermudez, the contractors charged with making Annum’s design a reality. They have all gathered here to witness the death of one building — and the birth of another.

Long before this piece of ground belonged to Pomfret, it belonged to an innkeeper and a New England farmer. Before that, it was a forested hillside home to the Pequots, and before them, the Nipmucks. It is easy to see why so many different people have called this place home. The site commands pretty views in both directions. To the west, terraced athletic fields cling like barnacles to the side of a small scooped out valley with deep-looking woods and a gurgling brook running through the middle. To the east, there’s a brick terrace, and just beyond the terrace, there’s the School Building and Clark Memorial Chapel, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

W hen Monell first opened in 1958, it contained three laboratories, a large lecture hall, two small classrooms, two darkrooms, a space for electronics, a small animal room, a wood shop, a metal shop, an auto shop, an office, and a space to store equipment. The project was made possible thanks to the Ambrose Monell Foundation, which donated $200,000, roughly half of the funds needed to build a new science center, dedicated to the memory of Ambrose Monell III ’26, who had died in a plane crash decades earlier.

Even after two large scale remodels, Monell still feels like an artifact of the 1950s — a squat, low-slung building with a flat rubberized roof, cinder blocks for walls, vinyl tiles for floors, and large rectilinear windows that tilt open at the bottom. If people ever considered Monell beautiful, they do not anymore. And yet, it has served as the hub of science education at Pomfret for well over six decades, quietly and without fuss. Thousands of students have passed through its doors. Some have gone on to make real and lasting contributions in science and technology, including one Nobel laureate.

F inally, the scene is set. The spectators take their places in front of the camera. They smile big smiles, sledge hammers in hand. No one is sad to see the building go. The shutter clicks. Soon, a bulldozer will rip open a gash across the face of the building. Piece by piece, brick by brick, the old building will be clawed down and carted away. By the end of March, there will be nothing left but a gaping hole in the ground where Monell once stood. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “The art of civilization is the act of drawing lines.” On this day, it is also the act of erasing them.

W hen the photo opp is over, everyone hurries inside. No one looks back.

IN SEPTEMBER, POMFRET ANNOUNCED Amplify: The Campaign for Pomfret School, a multi-year fundraising effort built around four core priorities: the advancement of teaching and learning, the expansion of access and affordability, the fortification of annual giving, and, of course, the need for a new science center.

Amplify is the most ambitious fundraising effort in Pomfret history. To date, thousands of donors have contributed more than $64 million in gifts, commitments, and pledges — including $20 million of the $22 million needed for the total cost of the science center project.

One of those suppor ters is James Rothman ’67, who won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. “This is a very special design,” he says. “I’ve been in many science centers, as you can imagine, and I don’t think I have ever seen one with such a unique, open, and inviting layout.”

The open and air y design is the brainchild of Annum Architects. Based in Boston, the award-winning, minorityowned firm was founded by renowned architect Ann Beha over thirty years ago. “Our work transforms spaces into timeless places,” says Annum Associate Principal Architect Jason Bowers. “The goal here was to create something that will not just be a center for science, but a center for the whole community.”

Annum clients include leading academic, civic, and cultural organizations like the US Department of State, Yale, MIT,

Harvard, and the Smithsonian. Awards for their work include the Boston Society of Architects Educational Facilities Award, American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Architecture, and the SCUP/AIA-CAE Excellence in Architecture Award.

“Ann is a gifted architect and Annum is a unique practice,” says Chief Financial Officer Ed Griffin, who chaired the selection committee. “They have exceeded our expectations at every turn.”

W hen the new center opens on this spot eighteen months from now, in September 2024, it will transform the Pomfret campus, serving as a hive of activity for science education and a shining example of the School’s commitment to sustainability.

“S ustainability is important to us,” says Griffin. “The architect took great care to design a building that makes excellent use of the site’s natural light and landscape.”

In the drawings, the building sits on roughly the same footprint as its predecessor, following the sloping gradient of the hill, but shifted slightly to the south, to offer more expansive views of Pomfret’s sports fields and the valley beyond. With the setting sun as a backdrop, towering walls of glass are juxtaposed against vertical slats of multi-tonal metal siding, exuding warm tones of red and brown.

“As soon as I saw it, it immediately made me think of chemical spectra and spectroscopy,” says Josh Lake, who heads the Science Department. “You're probably familiar with the famous image of white light getting split into the rainbow on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album cover. As it turns out, this phenomenon has interesting and scientifically valuable connections across many branches of science: physics, chemistry, and astronomy for sure, and then biology when one understands the link between the elements and life.” Lake shared his idea with Annum and they agreed to incorporate this “secret code” into the building design.

THE THREE-STORY FACILITY is double the size of Monell. Within its walls, more than 350 students each year will get to choose from thirty unique courses taught by ten different faculty members — teaching everything from aquaponics, robotics, and forensics to astronomy, engineering, and environmental design.

The center piece of the building is an airy space called the Hub. Windows stretching two stories high bathe the space in natural light. The floors are polished cement, and the walls are accented with natural wood. Beyond the Hub, the building branches into a labyrinth of classrooms, labs, and community gathering spaces. Every square inch of the building is used efficiently; nothing has gone to waste. This is a place for doing things.

On the upper most level of the building, state-ofthe-art lab spaces are paired with the roof mechanicals needed to support them. At the ground level, a door in the environmental science classroom gives students direct access to the outdoors. Steel reinforced beams allow physics students to measure the trajectory of heavy objects as they swing. Oversized hallways called “commons” are extensions of the classrooms themselves. Everywhere, glass walls create an atmosphere of openness and transparency.

Just to the nor th, a grassy hill has been left open for students to gather and relax. Across the landscape, a large door connects the indoor Makerspace to the outdoor Makeryard, giving student-engineers ample room to assemble their creations and store oversized materials.

The centerpiece of the building is an airy space called the Hub. Windows stretching two stories high bathe the space in natural light. The floors are polished cement, and the walls are accented with natural wood.

The company responsible for making this vision a reality is Shawmut Design and Construction, a $1.3 billion firm with offices in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Providence, Las Vegas, Miami, and Chicago, among others. As an awardwinning construction management firm, Shawmut is known for delivering an unmatched client experience that exceeds expectations. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Pomfret on this amazing project,” said Project Superintendent Chris Kulak.

S hawmut is no stranger to Pomfret, having partnered previously on the renovation of Hard Auditorium in 2022 and the construction of our Health and Wellness Center in 2018. Other A-List clients include Boston University, Harvard, Brown, Smith, MIT, UMass Chan Medical School, Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, the Boston Children’s Museum, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Boston Red Sox, and the LA Clippers.

“ When the contract went to bid, Shawmut really stood out from a crowd of qualified contractors,” says Director of Facilities Brenda Bullied.

F irst was its reputation for offering its clients “a better building experience.” Shawmut is 100 percent employeeowned, which means every employee has a vested interest in the success of the company and the success of the project. Second was its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, or what it refers to as a “culture of care.” Over the last several years, Shawmut has taken several critical steps in its DEI journey. In particular, it has achieved 100 percent pay equity. It has also launched a sponsorship program to elevate high-potential, underrepresented employees to the leadership team.

S hawmut estimates the project will take approximately eighteen months to complete. While the building is under construction, science classes have temporarily been relocated to other academic spaces all across campus. “We’ve been talking about this building for decades,” says Lake. “I am thrilled for it to be finally happening.”

Spotlight

DR. JAMES ROTHMAN ’67

Sterling Professor of Cell Biology at Yale University

Chairman of Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Cell Biology

Director and Founder of Yale’s Nanobiology Institute

Professor James Rothman ’67 is one of the world’s most distinguished biochemists and cell biologists. In 2013, he was awarded The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discoveries related to the key molecular machinery responsible for transfer of materials among compartments within cells, providing the conceptual framework for understanding such diverse and important processes as the release of insulin into the blood, communication between nerve cells in the brain, and the entry of viruses to infect cells.

Af ter graduating from Pomfret a year early, Rothman attended Yale College (1971) where he studied physics. He received his PhD in biological chemistry from Harvard (1976) and was a student at Harvard Medical School from 1971 to 1973. From 1976 to 1978, he completed a fellowship in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.