Townsend Hall

Centerbrook completed Townsend Hall, an academic wing at Episcopal High School. Its state-of-the-art classrooms have photometrically calibrated lighting levels and are designed to support diverse configurations using either the Harkness table or single and double desks arrays. AV support is flexible and unobtrusive; for example, short-throw video projectors can be mounted on either the long or short wall depending on teacher preference.

Client

Episcopal High School

Location Alexandria, VA
Size 30,000 Sq. Ft.
Features LEED
Program classrooms, kitchen, servery
Year Completed 2014
Photo Credit Jeff Goldberg/Esto

Townsend Hall also houses a new servery and kitchen, ample gathering spaces, and accessibility for the handicapped. It connects to the school’s library and to Hoxton House, the school’s most historic building, built in 1805 by Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Parke Custis Law.

Episcopal is well known for strong academics, a handsome campus, and enduring Georgian architecture. Townsend Hall is designed to an exacting historic standard, inside and out, in the school’s existing architectural style. Though new, it is intended to serve as a principal campus icon evoking the school’s 175-year history. It presides, Janus-like, over the west half of the campus, looking in the opposite compass direction from the east-facing Hoxton House.