OLSON LEWIS + Architects’ educational team implements a planning and design methodology called Immersion. Through an interactive process of interviews and dialogue with different constituencies, as well as on-site observation and documentation, we come to know each client from the inside out. Our team strives to understand and express the mission and vision that inspires each school. In the end, we identify each school’s distinctive lexicon, and build upon the characteristics intrinsic to life and learning at each academic community. This insight into a community’s underlying principles and unique culture then translates into the foundation for the architectural, contextual, and environmental cues our final solution will articulate.
Our team works with public and independent elementary and secondary schools throughout New England. We are known for contextual design, such as a consistent re-interpretation of turn-of-the-century rural and village architecture, including adaptive reuse of former farmhouses, carriage houses, mansions and grounds. We have also renovated structures in urban sites.
OLSON LEWIS + award-winning work ranges from campus master plans to architectural solutions. We have re-defined and healed disconnected campuses, created cohesive new architectural and functional centers for schools, and also designed specific architectural structures.