The center, designed by architectural firm Robert A.M. Stern Architects, is a 32,000-square-foot timber and fieldstone academic center that will provide an interdisciplinary focus on sustainability and the environment for the 850 high school students.

 

The facility will be constructed on 266 acres of undeveloped land north and east of Choate’s main campus and will function as a working laboratory, in addition to housing classrooms, seminar rooms and a residential facility with a kitchen for two faculty apartments, up to 20 students, visiting researchers, graduate students and scholars-in-residence.

 

The project was initiated and funded by class of 1957 alumnus and current board of trustees chair Herbert Kohler as a way to preserve and protect the land from future development, according to school officials.

 

The center is designed to achieve LEED-platinum certification, which would make it the first on campus, and a net-zero energy usage rating through an on-site, 290 kilowatt, solar photovoltaic array.

 

Design elements also include geothermal, solar hot water, and super-insulated walls and roof, according to officials from the firm.

 

"This piece of land will permit Choate to breathe freely as a microcosm of a world community, but it will also act as a laboratory for those who live there so they can speak with authority and act responsibly on the subject of sustainability," Kohler said.

 

Slated for completion in summer of 2012, classes will begin in the center in the fall.