Where Every Child has the Opportunity to Thrive

Our work for Pressley Ridge has primarily focused on analyzing their existing facilities, encompassing the day school, career development center for high school students, and the operations center, to identify opportunities for facility upgrades that enhance services for students and their families. In total, these three programs occupy approximately 60,000 square feet of built space.

Through extensive workshop discussions with stakeholder groups, we assessed the adequacy of existing spaces, identified underutilized areas, and recognized instances of over-sizing. Our objective was to create a new, properly sized program to meet current and future academic requirements while identifying the most cost-effective renovation and construction opportunities within the existing buildings.

The insights gained from our program analysis guided our planning and design process for Pressley Ridge. This allowed us to develop concepts for “Academic & Administrative Neighborhoods” within the school building. Additionally, we strategically inserted new entry additions at key locations on the exterior to provide clear guidance and controlled access for students, staff, and visitors.

Given the existing pinwheel-shaped building layout, we aligned the neighborhoods as follows: The Day School Academic Neighborhood, comprising classrooms, group rooms, liaison offices, calm and sensory rooms, is situated within the existing west wing. The Career Development Academic Neighborhood, which includes classrooms, a Culinary Arts Room, STEAM classroom, group room, liaison and therapy offices, and a sensory room, is located within the south wing. The Main Day School Administrative Neighborhood, housing the director, coordinator, psychologist offices, and conferencing spaces, occupies the northern wing of the school. Lastly, the Family Counseling Center Administrative Neighborhood features therapists’ offices and therapy conference spaces and is situated in the east wing.