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Dear SAAS Community,
As we prepare to come together as one unified campus this fall, we’re excited to share more about the transformational everyday impact our new building will have—a space thoughtfully designed to elevate the student and faculty experience in ways both big and small.
You can already picture it coming to life: a group of students huddled around a whiteboard in the digital fabrication lab, brainstorming solutions to a challenge posed by a local nonprofit. Across the hall, a student layers guitar riffs into a digital track, experimenting late into the afternoon in the music studio because the space invites them to stay, to play, to create. Outside in the courtyard, another student who discovered woodworking for the first time in Intro to Woodworking and Design, carefully finishes a sculpture that will anchor their senior project. These spaces aren’t just filled with equipment; they’re filled with energy, purpose, and the spark of discovery.
Our home for the Upper School will enhance campus cohesion, deepen the sense of connection in community gathering spaces, and unlock student creativity and collaboration in dynamic classrooms across emerging and long-established programs. It’s a building designed not just to serve, but to inspire. It’s a place where possibility meets purpose.
The new building will provide our Innovations Department with the dedicated, purpose-built spaces it needs to continue growing and evolving. The World Economic Forum highlights problem-solving, self-management, collaboration, and technological fluency as the essential skills students need to thrive in the workforce of 2025 and beyond. At SAAS, our Innovations Department is designed around these very skills, offering courses in Computational Thinking, Entrepreneurship and Design, and Financial Literacy. As part of their graduation requirements, every student will take a minimum of six courses across our Innovations course areas, and with the launch of our new building we’ll have the spaces for their learning to take flight. With new, future-ready classrooms and labs, students and teachers will have the flexible, relevant environments they need to explore, create, and apply their learning in real and meaningful ways.
Students will enjoy two state-of-the-art music production studios, designed for mixing, editing, and vocal recording. They’ll utilize professional tools to explore audio storytelling and digital music creation. Wood and metal fabrication shops provide the space, tools, and safety features required for hands-on innovation and prototyping. Just outside, an open-air welding courtyard expands the possibilities even further, giving students experience in crafting, building, and iterating in ways that blend creativity with technical skill.
The beauty of purpose-built spaces is not only in how they look, but in how they work and how they shape interactions, facilitate learning, and allow young people to grow into their potential. Whether it’s a commons that invites connection on each floor, two fabrication labs that push the boundaries of their imagination, or a seminar room that supports thoughtful dialogue, every space has been created with intention to serve the rhythms of student life and the relationships that define it.
These purpose-built spaces also serve as launchpads. They’re places where students can discover new talents, push the boundaries of their creativity, and strive toward new levels of achievement, supported by spaces designed to spark innovation and growth.
Upper School students will now gather in spaces that truly reflect their needs. Our new home provides spaces that champion independence and collaboration, creativity and scholarship, quiet reflection and lively discussion. It’s a building that doesn’t just hold students; it supports them. It encourages them to linger in conversation after class, to rehearse lines or debug code with peers, to connect with a teacher in a space that reflects the heart of our community: innovative, open, and student-centered.
The Home of the Upper School is more than a new building—it’s a launchpad for kids, for our families, and for our future. It’s a statement of belief in our students and their futures. It’s a place where the culture of SAAS—purposeful, vigorous, and dynamic—takes root in every corner and hallway.
Together, on one block, we are creating a learning environment that matches the mission we live every day. One School. One Block. One Community. And now, a home built for what happens inside.
We can’t wait to see it all come to life.
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