Saint Anne’s Belfield is a private school with grades preschool through 12th grade in Charlottesville, Virginia with a 100-year history of providing quality education for both local and boarding students on two campuses. NBW worked with Saint Anne’s Belfield and Bowie Gridley Architects of Washington, D.C. to design and oversee the construction of a new Learning Village (approximately 55,000 square feet of new space in conjunction with 44,000 square feet of existing space) and campus.
The new buildings are comprised of the new K-8 classrooms, dining hall, library, arts and theater/performance space; the landscape plans focus on hardscape, planting and stormwater management for a 4,500 square foot courtyard, three new athletic fields, two playgrounds that include both traditional play structures and creative play spaces and elements, parking lots and arrival/pick-up and exit routes. In addition to meeting the needs of the program for the school and helping them realize the potential of the outdoor space to both enhance and expand their educational mission, the landscape design incorporates several sustainable design initiatives including extensive stormwater management that captures most of the site runoff for newly developed areas in a cistern along with the roof runoff. There are two green roofs on the buildings and areas not connected to the cistern flow through rain gardens before entering the traditional stormwater piping set up on the campus. Light fixtures have low cut-off tops and native planting is emphasized throughout the use of native trees, shrubs, and perennials.
Collaborators: Bowie Gridley Architects, Siska Aurand Landscape Architects, English Construction Company
