Webb Today: New Hooper Community Center

Hooper Community Center

A dynamic center for the Webb community

Webb has a worldwide community of students, alumni, parents, faculty and staff, but while campus is the center of the Webb community, there hasn’t been a campus center for them all, until now.

After more than a year of renovations, the Hooper Community Center is ready to reopen as a dynamic center for students and the entire Webb community. It’s a vision Head of Schools Taylor Stockdale has had for a long time. “Webb has a wonderful campus, with so much great architecture,” he explains, “but it hasn’t had an entrance — a presentation — for people coming to campus, and it hasn’t had a center for the whole Webb community.” The renovation gives Webb both. “The idea of what Hooper could be has evolved over a very long period of time,” says Director of Finance, Planning and Operations Janet Peddy. “It landed in a place where we wanted to create a community hub. For students, the Fawcett Memorial Library is the school’s academic hub, but as it was configured, Hooper was not able to serve students or others as a community hub.”

“ The community center has an indoor-outdoor feel, and that’s definitely by design. We wanted it to feel like a home for students, but also a place for the whole community to congregate.”

The newly completed renovation is designed to allow the building and surrounding Centennial Plaza to do just that. Early in the design process, Webb community members identified functional aspects of the building that needed to be improved, including lighting, ventilation and comfort. The vision, Peddy says, was to create a comfortable space that encourages interaction — a space for the whole community. “We wanted to create a front door to the campus. Something that feels like an arrival.”

Together, Hooper and the new Centennial Plaza present a welcoming first impression of Webb for first-time visitors, students and alumni alike, says Director of Institutional Advancement Dutch Barhydt. “We wanted it to be something that will inspire our community and really represent the history of Webb. Together they mark both the schools’ first century and the promise of the second 100 years.”

Hooper’s renovation was made possible through the generosity of donors including Blake ’68 and Andrea Brown, who shared Stockdale’s vision of a space that represented the school’s sense of community, history and promise. “We are so thankful for all the contributions made by donors, the Webb team, architects, and contractors,” says Blake, a Webb trustee and cochair of the leadership gifts committee. “What a wonderful job in integrating the past with today’s modern conveniences.”

Those conveniences include an energy-efficient active/ passive cooling system and an interior that can be configured to accommodate everything from small groups of students studying and socializing, to the entire student community enjoying ceremonies and performances, to students and other community members together.

In form, it’s a change from the structure’s first incarnation as Webb’s gymnasium, but in spirit it’s a return to the building’s original sense of community. Designed by architect William Brandt — whose influence on the Webb campus is also seen in the administration building and the Alamo dorms — the Spanish Revival-style gymnasium

Hooper was built in 1931 and served as the gymnasium until the 1980s.

was built in 1931. It was renovated as a student center in the 1980s, after the Les Perry Gymnasium opened, and named in honor of Frederick R. Hooper (Webb faculty member 19331962, headmaster 1962-1973).

The project to renew the structure and surrounding space as a community center was entrusted to landscape architect Scott Sebastian of Sebastian & Associates and architect John Lesak of Page & Turnbull. “Webb has worked with this design team for many years,” Peddy says. “The landscape architect saw Hooper as a pavilion, with access from all four sides, and the building architect married that notion of an open space blending inside and outside with ideas for a versatile structure.”

“The community center has an indoor-outdoor feel, and that’s definitely by design,” says Associate Head of Schools Dr. Theresa Smith. “We wanted it to feel like a home for students, but also a place for the whole community to congregate. The building and the pavilion can support casual everyday meetings or open up on both sides for performances and whole-school events. It’s a place that can bring everyone together, in small groups and large.”

These stained glass windows were saved before the reconstruction and are displayed in the new community center. The iconic clock tower on the northwest corner of Hooper still stands proudly and keeps the community on time.

“It’s a challenge to accommodate the entire Webb student body, but the building now does that,” says Lesak. His design added new technology and features while maintaining the building’s airy, open central space. “As you walk through the new space, you should have a sense of light, air, comfort and history, along with the new technology,” says Peddy. “The building has beautiful bones.” In addition to the building’s innovative cooling system — which includes automated window shades, a thick south wall that acts as a heat sink, an added cupola for air exchange and (no kidding) Big Ass Fans — the renovations include a video wall, a welcome desk and improved natural lighting throughout. A redesigned entry porch provides shading while reflecting natural light into the building, and in a nod to the building’s heritage, reclaimed wood from the original gymnasium floor is used to accent the interior.

The renovation “will have an impact for generations,” notes Barhydt. “Students who come to Webb in 20, 30, 40 years will use the building and the plaza – students who weren’t even born when this renovation took place.” For now, Webb’s community center is almost ready to open. The final touches are being put in place: student-tested and -approved furniture. “All it needs,” says Peddy, “is people.”