Baylor’s quad with Trustee Hall, left, and chapel.
photo by John Shearer
Baylor School has launched a capital campaign to raise $45 million, the largest comprehensive fundraising effort in the school’s 124-year history.
The centerpiece of the campaign is a new $13 million academic center that will be built on the current Trustee Hall site and will replace what school officials call sub-standard classroom spaces currently located in the basements of several older buildings. The new structure is designed to be flexible and sustainable for the next 100 years, but complements the architectural style of Baylor’s existing buildings.
The campaign effort will also raise an additional $15 million for the endowment to provide a stronger financial foundation for future initiatives.
School officials believe this will help keep Baylor a leader among independent schools.
The third campaign priority will enhance student life by transforming the quad on top of the hill from asphalt to landscaped and more aesthetically pleasing green space. The money raised will also enhance pedestrian safety by improving vehicular traffic patterns and parking.
“Our Forever Forward campaign will pave the way for important capital improvements and renovations, while also strengthening the endowment,” said Headmaster Scott Wilson ’75. “Thanks to the outstanding leadership of campaign chairman Zan Guerry ’67, the campaign committee, and many generous donors, we have already raised in excess of $33 million in gifts and pledges, completed a renovation of Guerry Dining Hall, and made important upgrades to dormitories.”
Officials say naming rights are still available for some of the projects.
Renderings at the school’s website show a large building that features more glass than some of the current Baylor buildings to allow for good views, a remodeled quadrangle made more aesthetically pleasing, and more pedestrian friendly steps leading up to the new academic building from the lower part of the campus. The steps are also designed to give a more obvious main entrance area to the upper part of the campus, school officials added.
Trustee Hall — located at the north end of the school’s quad on top of the hill — had opened in 1936. Designed by the Pringle and Smith firm out of Atlanta, the designer of the original chapel and original wing of the Guerry dining hall, it housed basement classroom space, dorm rooms and faculty apartments for years.
The quad/quadrangle was a main place where some of the military training was conducted before the formerly all-male school dropped its military curriculum in 1971.
The school has posted a video, renderings and more information about the campaign and projects at:
http://www.baylorschool.org/about-baylor/campaign-2017/index.aspx