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Exterior of the renovated office building that is now the BASIS Independent School.

academic practices in which teachers who are “subject and auditorium—offered bones that could serve as the,
experts” are given substantial freedom to teach as they well, basis for an excellent school facility. Moreover, the
think best. Students are frequently “benchmarked” (i.e., company had identified Tysons as the optimal location, and
tested) to be sure they are meeting global standards. This during its market research, had noted that the established
method has been exceptionally successful, at least if one independent schools in the area were generally traditional
gives credence to recent education rankings in which BASIS in their architectural, educational, and social character.
schools zoom to the top both nationally and internationally. BASIS is not a traditional school, so the idea of a non-
Approaching BASIS McLean, a visitor still might traditional building wasn’t a huge leap. A central BASIS
reasonably mistake it for a corporate headquarters rather concept is that “creative tension” is beneficial; this translated
than a school. That’s partially because one doesn’t expect fairly directly to the conversion of an office building into
a school in this location—in fact, despite having millions a school.
of square feet of retail and office space, Tysons had no Perkins Eastman smartly used the east atrium as an
schools before BASIS opened—and partially because the informal central gathering/multipurpose space, with the
exterior is largely unchanged from its previous incarnation. grand stair at one end and the deans’ offices at the other.
Even the logotype on the school’s sign is similar to those This large space effortlessly and instantly became the
of its neighbors, exuding a certain corporate polish. This heart of the school. Circulation generally goes through
turns out to be the case on the interior as well, where the atrium (at the lower level) or around the atrium (at
splashes of red (matched to the corporate logotype) and the upper two levels), such that students and faculty are
wood liven up a mostly shades-of-gray palette. It is the constantly encountering each other—and seeing through
presence of the students, and of the fruits of their efforts to science labs, the deans’ offices, music rooms, and other
such as artworks displayed facing the lobby, which mark shared-use areas. There’s more to this than just fostering
it as a school. familiarity: BASIS emphasizes mastery of subjects via a
To review the architecture of BASIS McLean, therefore, constant “overlap-and-advance” methodology. The atrium
is to review a very corporate-feeling place—corporate in in general, and circulation patterns in particular, represent
the best sense of the word, connoting the professionalism an architectural match of this idea: students are constantly
and rigor required to attain and maintain competitiveness repeating movements, becoming familiar with every
at the global level. BASIS McLean has a lot in common resource the school offers. CEO Block sees the message of
with classic tech industry research and office facilities, where the atrium as, “It’s cool to be smart; it’s cool to learn new
a certain combination of flexible-use spaces, extensive things; and it’s cool to ask for help.”
whiteboards, and architectural rawness has become a Fortuitously, one section of the pre-existing office
tried-and-true formula for promoting innovation. building had two floors but was structured as a potential
Having decided to extend its brand into northern double-height space. Perkins Eastman removed the upper
Virginia, BASIS looked at numerous options before settling floor and made this space the gymnasium. Similarly, a
on the former BDM building. “People had to believe more pre-existing loading dock at the lowest level converted
than a little bit” that this conversion could work, comment- neatly into a separate entrance for the pre-K area. Former
ed BASIS CEO Ian Block, but the existing building—with open-office areas were split up into a variety of classrooms,
several skylit atrium spaces and a pre-existing cafeteria corridors, and support spaces. One new egress stair had

All photos © THE BUSINESS OF ACADEMICS 63
Sarah Mechling-Perkins Eastman