Transformation Station: Packer’s Campus Master Plan Takes Shape

In keeping with Packer’s commitment to evolving its historic campus to support our vision for educational excellence, the school is developing and implementing a long-term Campus Master Plan. The plan aims to create a home base for students of all ages while enhancing sustainability and accessibility across campus. The planning process is guided by the following question: Over the next several years, how will Packer re-configure our facilities and interior spaces to further support learning and working together?

The first major project of the Plan is the postponed renovation and expansion of our Garden House and Garden, which will break ground following graduation in June. The new Garden House will open as a purpose-built home for the Lower School in Fall 2025. At 25,000 square feet, more than double its current size, it will house classrooms with flexible in-room spaces for First through Fourth Grades, along with hallway breakout spaces and offices for Lower School administrative personnel. An all-weather connector will adjoin the Garden House to the main building, facilitating movement through campus for classes like arts, library, and physical education, and fostering the intentional cross-divisional interactions that help relationships and belonging flourish at Packer.

The redesign of the Garden itself—the next step in its evolution over many years of Packer’s history—will include spaces and structures to support various modes of play, from running and ball playing to imaginative games and quiet engagement. New play structures and seating, improved accessibility, and thoughtful landscaping will create a more open plan and better flow throughout areas of the Garden. The new Garden design will also emphasize sustainability, including through its water management system.

As part of the Garden redesign, we will be saying goodbye this spring to Packer’s beloved Imagination Station playground, built by the hands of Packer parents and loved by generations of students over decades of happy recesses and outdoor play.

The shift of the Lower School to the Garden House will create much-needed additional space in Founder’s Hall for an improved Upper School experience in the years to come. In the near term, renovations and enhancements to the first floor of Founder’s Hall opening in September 2023 will create an Upper School community life hub that will include areas dedicated to independent or group study, relaxation, and connection. The Upper School renovations are based on observing the way Packer’s oldest students use campus spaces and speaking directly with them about their lived experience. The improvements will support Packer’s strategic goal of creating opportunities for students to learn and engage with each other across the school, inside and outside of the classroom, in ways that support excellent education and enhance student wellness and balance.

Support from our generous donors, along with ongoing work by the Board and administration to ensure the health of our internal capital reserves, makes the Garden House and Garden renovation projects possible. As the master planning process proceeds, we will continue to share updates with the broader Packer community in the Packer Magazine and on our website.