The Hockaday School – Liza Lee Academic Research Center (ARC)

Dallas, Texas

GFF collaborated with Overland Partners of San Antonio to deliver three important new buildings and a significant renovation for this prestigious north Dallas school for girls. Hockaday’s 54,000 SF Academic Research Center houses libraries for the lower school and the middle / upper school, uniting the campus, and enhancing a treed courtyard. This linkage addresses physical and psychological connections in a school serving a wide range of ages. The design serves as a counterpoint to the 1960’s rational concrete frame-and-infill of the original facilities. While adopting the structural rigor of the early buildings, the ARC introduces soft curves in the same St. Joe brick. Large planes of glass are protected from the Texas sun through motorized sunscreens. The building received design awards from the Dallas Chapter AIA and the American Library Association.