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The area before renovation.

Photo © Newman Architects

New outdoor classroom, featuring the sculpture by Davis McCarty and seating made Photo © Prakash Patel
of repurposed wood provided by DC’s Urban Lumber Mill.
The land on which Garrison sits was still rural until artist Davis McCarty, the pointed form of which was inspired
the Civil War, when the federal government built barracks by the tents of Camp Barker. The adjacent portion of the school
on the site for Union Army soldiers. The facility was named building is a double-volume multipurpose room with floor-to-
Camp Barker. As the war progressed, the Union confiscated ceiling windows. The space is original to the 1964 school, but
Confederate “properties,” including many slaves. The need to the windows were enlarged from small, high clerestories. When
house these people led to Camp Barker’s repurposing in 1862 doors to the adjacent lobby are open, there is a view from S
as a “contraband camp,” one of several in the area, so called Street through to the outdoor classroom and schoolyard.
because freed or escaped slaves’ legal status was “contraband.” McCarty’s tower is one of the products of a public art brief
The Union Army recruited at these camps for its “Colored that Newman Architects created for the project. Three portals
Troops” regiments, whose members are now honored at the marking community entrance points to the site were designed
African American Civil War Memorial and Museum two blocks by After Architecture of Roanoke—these were specifically
north of Garrison School. conceived as the Camp Barker Memorial. Panels of bright brass
President Lincoln, travelling between the White House and and bas-relief sculptures in bronze by local artist Vinnie Bagwell
the Soldiers Home, often passed Camp Barker. In the fall of 1862, are set into charred wood frames. At the school’s main entrance,
he visited the camp and made a public address. A photo of this renewed by the Newman/BELL Joint Venture to be glassy and
event, with a big crowd and Black children singing, is the only welcoming, mosaic-clad boulders by the artist Valerie Theberge
known photograph of Camp Barker. This was around the time combine whimsy and functionality, since they offer places to sit.
of its peak population, estimated at 4,000. The camp was closed There is also a mural inside the school.
in 1863 due to an outbreak of cholera, but many of its residents LAB’s Michael W. Smith, Assoc. AIA, Assoc. ASLA,
stayed in the immediate area, forming the nucleus for the rise Assoc. NOMA, noted, “The community wanted the kids to
of Shaw and U Street (2 blocks to the north) as centers of Black have a connection to nature.” Accordingly, along S Street,
culture in the early to mid-20th century. a meandering nature walk was created, with native plants
The designers’ early visioning studies featured two cross- attracting pollinators. It doubles as a wheelchair ramp for the
axes. The point where these axes meet is approximately where main entrance. A similar semi-natural zone was created along
Lincoln is believed to have stood. It is the focal point of the the south side of the building; classrooms look out to this area,
design: an “outdoor classroom” that is also a space for play and which serves as a buffer to the play fields.
community gatherings. It is marked by a prismatic tower by the
30 IT TAKES A VILLAGE