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Second floor corridor, with color accents on the floor.
Entry portico. View through a corner of the Commons toward the main classroom wing.
Project: Potomac School, Building, housing dining facilities and administrative
Intermediate School, McLean, VA offices, in 2012. All of these projects, along with a
performing arts center that opened in 1999, were
Architects: cox graae + spack architects designed by the firm of cox graae + spack architects,
Structural Engineers: McMullan Associates which has been working with Potomac since 1997, long
MEP Engineers: Metropolitan Consulting Engineers enough for several classes to make their way through the
General Contractor: Coakley & Williams Construction school’s full 13-year curriculum.
the Middle School for grades 4 through 6, and the Upper “The design for the Intermediate School was really
School for grades 9 through 12. about identity,” said Joanna Schmickel, AIA, LEED AP
BD+C, who has been principal-in-charge for all of cox
A partially renovated and partly new Intermediate graae + spack’s work at the Potomac School over the past
School wing is the latest addition to the Potomac School’s decade. “Previously, they had only a door leading to a
90-acre campus, which has been undergoing a compre- double-loaded corridor, with no central gathering space.
hensive modernization over the past couple of decades. [The administrators] wanted the Intermediate School to
A new Upper School (featured on the cover of the Fall 2007 have its own culture—to be its own family. They wanted to
issue of ARCHITECTUREDC) opened in 2006, followed by give these kids a sense of responsibility and independence,
a new Lower School building in 2009, and the Flag Circle but with a clear adult presence just an arm’s length away.”
POTOMAC PLACE 53
