Life in Two Buildings
We are concluding our fifth full week of our school year, and our fifth week of being a two-building school. It seems fitting, then, to offer five observations gathered in, around, and between our homes on 62nd and 64th Street as we’ve launched our 2025-26 journey.
First, our original building, home to the Lower and Middle Schools, remains a place teeming with incredibly high energy, free expression, and warm bonhomie; indeed the soul of the site is happily intact, and decidedly congruent with years past. But there is also a greater sense of serenity and measure, too, directly attributable to the de-densification of the building. While we surely miss seeing the Upper Schoolers on 62nd Street, their relocation to our 64th Street schoolhouse has freed up so much more room for our younger guys, and to good purpose: This improved space has made scheduling easier, reduced the number of focus-stealing room transitions that both boys and faculty need to negotiate, and made hallway passage more like a pleasant stroll than a running of the bulls.
Second, one notices the scale of the East 64th Street facility immediately upon entry. Virtually everything—the Community Commons, the gymnasium, the library, even the hallways—communicates senses of spaciousness and possibility. Our classrooms and meeting spaces now allow for so much more flexibility than we had previously enjoyed, a flexibility which has really enhanced the solidity of our community gatherings, allowed faculty to get even more creative in their teaching modalities, and given boys more venues for connecting with faculty and each other. The school was purpose-built for older boys, and we are seeing the benefits of that intention throughout the school day.
Third, the handshake culture at each set of Red Doors expresses a slight (if not unexpected) contrast. On 62nd Street, the scene still resembles the entry to a Springsteen concert, with most boys pouring into the building as soon as the doors open, with a brief stop to pump a few hands before rushing off to whatever wonderful adventure awaits. At the 64th Street variation, however, things are less hurried, with boys more likely to filter in near the end of the arrival period, more likely to chat with a teacher or administrator in the vestibule, and more likely to be straightening a necktie to get themselves correct for the day. The differences between the two Red Door experiences strike me as both charming and developmentally appropriate; the persistent similarities—the guarantee of a firm handshake and a warm smile as one enters Browning, wherever that entry occurs--are what most excite me.
“Five weeks in, we are delivering on our commitment to our mission and to our boys through a combination of core values, essential traditions, and new spaces. We now have two buildings; we still have one Browning.”
Fourth, when hustling between our two buildings, I often run into Corey Hernandez, who is making his own 62 to 64 journey. Corey is the head chef who masterfully supervises the kitchens on both sites, and he jokes with me about the school getting the two of us an electric scooter to ease the interbuilding commute—at least, I think he’s joking. Either way, I’m grateful to him and to the handful of administrators who shuttle back and forth between our two facilities to ensure a level of cultural and operational continuity that is so important to protecting the connectedness of our community. Maintaining that standard is no small task, and requires the kind of commitment and vigilance that these folks are applying.
And fifth, while one day the newness of these arrangements will wear off, at present the boys on both sites seem genuinely and openly enthusiastic about the novel experiences they’re getting. Older Middle School students revel in opportunity and responsibility that comes from being the “big boys” on 62nd Street. Upper School students marvel at the quality and size of our athletic facilities. Lower School boys delight in the “Curiosity Zone—a hybrid art/music/science space—that we were able to create for them. Eventually, inevitably, these elements will become part of “business as usual” at Browning; for now, however, it’s a treat to see how boys from Kindergarten to Grade 12 are authentically enlivened by their respective academic homes.
There will, of course, be growing pains, and moments where our two-building structure creates not just benefits, but challenges. But as with education itself, those challenges are the necessary conditions of our improvement, the opportunities through which we become the most meaningful learning community that we can be. Five weeks in, we are delivering on our commitment to our mission and to our boys through a combination of core values, essential traditions, and new spaces. We now have two buildings; we still have one Browning.