A Focus on Community Space

Brooks will introduce two new augmented community spaces this school year: an expanded Keating Room and upgraded tennis facilities (Update: shown below in December 2022).

This story appeared in the most recent Brooks Bulletin. Click to check out the full issue!

As the school ceased the use of Frick Dining Hall, it looked to reimagine functional spaces that already existed on campus that allow for the school community to gather together.

The Keating Room, which is located inside Wilder Dining Hall, provides an excellent existing footprint that the school will use in better service to students and adults at Brooks.

An early rendering of the exterior of Wilder Dining Hall once the Keating Room expansion is complete. Here, the expanded Keating Room is on the right, and the new vestibule and main entrance to Wilder Dining Hall is in the center.

The reconfiguration of the Keating Room has also allowed the school to expand the dining hall's outdoor seating area, create a new, more functional entrance to Wilder Dining Hall and add a second all-gender restroom to the dining hall level.

An expected layout of Wilder Dining Hall, with an expanded Keating Room, a new vestibule entrance and an additional all-gender restroom.

Construction earlier this fall

The patio area and entrance earlier this week.

The Keating Room expansion will provide a flexible space that can be used, for example, for adult and student meetings, team meals, parent dinners and student social gatherings on the weekends. It will also provide additional seating space during all-school meals. The Keating Room will now meet the building's current roof line, which increases the capacity of the space.

In order to make room for the Keating Room's expansion, the main entrance to Wilder Dining Hall itself will move to a new vestibule in the center of the building.

A look at the Keating Room expansion earlier this fall (above) and rendering of the interior of the expanded Keating Room, looking west toward P.B.A. Hall and Thorne House (below)

Meanwhile, the renovation to the school's tennis facilities will improve the experience for Brooks tennis players and coaches, as well as their opponents, families and the community of fans that support them. The reimagining of the tennis spaces creates an intentional, more attractive and welcoming facility in which Brooksians can excel.

The exterior of the tennis pavilion saw the most improvements this summer, with the installation of perennials, shrubs and grasses, as well as the construction of a new spectator area and stone wall seating, similar to what fans enjoy at Trustey Memorial Field.

Follow Brooks School on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to see all the activities, projects and happenings in our community each day during the school year.

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