School Celebrates Grand Opening

The Bancroft School in Mount Laurel, N.J., celebrated its grand opening on Monday, December 18, 2017. The new campus provides a regional destination of hope where expanded and upgraded learning and living spaces are designed specifically to meet the needs of special education students and their families.

Dewberry, a privately held professional services firm, supported the school with selecting and then developing an appropriate site for the new 80-acre campus.

 Following site selection, Dewberry was responsible for full land development services, including survey; landscape architecture; and site/civil, geotechnical, environmental, and traffic engineering. The design actualizes Bancroft’s vision to provide opportunities for exploration and community interaction with outdoor walking paths of various scales; locations for play, including sports fields and playgrounds; and garden areas that focus on bringing nature into the everyday interaction of the children in the school. Dewberry studied how the school’s special needs students would use the space and designed secure areas that provide a safe environment without feeling constrained or confining. Hardscape and landscape materials and plantings were carefully selected to keep users safe.

Featured

  • Chicago District Completes Construction on New Elementary School

    North Chicago School District 187 in North Chicago, Ill., recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Forrestal Elementary School, according to a news release. The new school marks a major investment in military-connected students and families at Naval Station Great Lakes.

  • St. John Fisher University

    Classroom Revitalization – Basil Hall Room 216

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. St. John Fisher University's Basil Hall Room 216 Classroom Revitalization has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of Spaces.

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey

    Spaces4Learning recently launched the 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey, which collects data on the previous year’s K–12 and higher education construction projects nationwide.

  • Philadelphia Middle School Facility Earns LEED Gold Certification

    The Alternative Middle Years (AMY) at James Martin Middle School in Philadelphia, Penn., recently received a LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, according to a news release. The School District of Pennsylvania partnered with KSS Architects on the project.