Sag Harbor Express: Hayground School Hopes to Break Ground on New Classroom Building This Fall

Sag Harbor Express - Stephen J. Kotz on Aug 27, 2024

The Hayground School’s proposal for a new classroom building, which has been on the drawing board for the better part of six years, will be the subject of a public hearing for site-plan approval before the Southampton Town Planning Board on September 12.

The building, which would be erected just south of Jeff’s Kitchen, will include a basement science space, first-floor art space, and a rooftop garden and solar panels. A subterranean library off to the side with a glass-enclosed entry and a dug-out amphitheater facing the building would round out the improvements.

The project, including some related renovations of existing space, will cost approximately $3.5 million, according to the school’s treasurer, Tony Hitchcock, but there is already nearly $2.2 million pledged to the project, and the school launched a drive to raise the remaining funds at its Summer Chef event earlier this month.

“We feel very confident that we’ll easily be able to break ground when the permits are approved by the town, which we hope will be sometime in November or December,” he said. “In the worst case, we can borrow the balance.”

The architect for the project, David Berridge, said the school initially wanted to expand its art space by about 50 percent. Rather than “gobbling up” a lot of space on the 13-acre campus, the school

decided to build a two-story building to provide more space for science instruction and “bite the bullet” and install an elevator.

Both Berridge and contractor John Barrows of P3 Builders said they had been given a mandate to build as green a building as possible. They focused not only on reducing the carbon cost of operating the building — hence the solar panels — as well as the carbon cost of the materials used in the construction. In another energy-saving move, the building’s climate will be controlled by a geothermal system.

“We are trying to find that crossover, that sweet spot, where we’re as energy efficient as we possibly can be, but also balancing that with the embedded greenhouse gas emissions,” Barrows said.

“When you look at a building holistically, it’s not just energy used, but energy used in making it,” added Berridge, noting that materials such as concrete, steel and even insulation can add significantly to a building’s carbon footprint.

Because of Hayground’s philosophy of integrating the arts with science, Berridge said the spaces he is designing will be largely open to however the students and teacher configure them. The main rooms of the classroom portion of the structure will measure approximately 2,200 square feet, he said, while the underground library will be approximately 1,000 square feet.

Doug Weitz, who directs Hayground’s popular summer camp, which has approximately 650 enrollees as well as a waiting list, said the exterior of the addition will serve his needs. He pointed out that the new construction will create a number of courtyards and enclosed spaces that will provide spaces to gather and organize different activities.

The amphitheater, which will be laid out on the south side of the classroom building, will provide space for performances, including by outside groups, for which the school currently does not have adequate space, Hitchcock said.

So far, the school has received a pair of $750,000 gifts from the Riggio Foundation and Michael and Linda Donovan’s Charlottesville Area Foundation. Another $500,000 has been pledged by the Rodney L. White Foundation. Hitchcock said two additional $100,000 donations have also been pledged.

The plans have already been approved by the Southampton Town Architectural Review Board. Berridge said initial plans for the building were approved by the Town Planning Board several years ago, but due to changes in the design since then, the board requested a second look at the site plan. [n.f. at its September 28 Planning Board meeting.]