Preserving Connection in a Two-Building Campus
I can still remember the mood in my house when I left for college. I was somewhat nervous—I had not spent more than a couple of weeks away from home before—but mostly excited about the opportunity ahead. My parents, while certainly happy for me, better understood what my departure meant: Their house, and my interaction with it, would never be quite the same again.
I have been recalling this as our community anticipates the completion of our new Upper School building on East 64th Street late this spring, before our Grade 9-12 boys take up residence there in the fall. It’s such a momentous time for our school, the fulfillment of years’ worth of planning and preparation, and our new facilities will create more space and opportunity for creative programming and student engagement on both 62nd and 64th Streets. But at the same time, I am sometimes asked what this expansion into two buildings will mean for what we love most about Browning: Its sense of connection, of togetherness among boys from Kindergarten to Grade 12, and with the faculty that guide them over the arc of 13 years.
It’s a terrific question, and one that has to stay front of mind, even as we look forward to the possibilities inherent in our new facility. So much of Browning’s magic hinges on interage student relationships, on unstructured encounters in our hallways and library and gym, on the assurance that boys will be seen and valued by faculty from across divisions. The space behind the Red Doors encourages a sense of “One Browning,” and we are correct to want to protect that feeling. Put simply, in finding a building, we cannot lose a culture.
Part of our answer to this challenge involves preserving as many of our cross-divisional rites, traditions, and student groups as possible. Our opening of school assembly, the winter holiday concert, our all-school Field Day, student affinity groups, our Green Team, our squash, tennis, and golf programs—these will remain as sites where students come together from across divisions to work on shared projects, rituals, and competitions. And we envision adding to these ongoing practices a new set of encounters and opportunities that will shrink any figurative distance between our two buildings. Plans for bringing Middle School athletic teams to the East 64th gymnasium, for partnership between divisional student councils, for inter-building student mentorship programs, for visiting music and artistic performances, and for classroom shadow days exemplify the focus being placed on maintaining community connection. While we will have to be more intentional about creating opportunities that once emerged more organically, this is the commitment we will make to sustain continuity of cultural “feel” throughout our two buildings.
“As our campus grows, we will celebrate the new and embrace all that has come before—and be at home. ”
When I went away to college, and even beyond, I never stopped thinking of my parents’ house as anything less than a home. Though I was no longer experiencing the joys of everyday life there, I learned how to organize my visits home (and, eventually, my parents’ visits to me) around both old traditions and new rituals, activities that equally reminded us of a shared past and created meaning for the present and future. We learned that physical distance did not create separation, but instead revealed new ways in which connection could be preserved and strengthened. The significance of home, it turns out, is not based only on proximity, but, as importantly, on going forward together. And as our campus grows, we will celebrate the new and embrace all that has come before—and be at home.