Eastport-South Manor Junior-Senior High School Campus

The Eastport-South Manor Central School District was formed from the merger of two local districts, Eastport and South Manor. The two districts, along with several others participated in a study in the mid-1990s to determine the feasibility of combining the many local districts into one centralized district. Proponents suggested that this would benefit the schools through lower central administration cost and would allow significantly better programming for students, since a combined district would have a much higher enrollment than any of the individual districts. Ultimately, in 2000, only the two school districts decided to combine to the newly created Eastport-South Manor CSD.

In designing the sprawling junior-senior high school for the newly merged district in Manorville, BBS turned to a concept called an “academical village” used by Thomas Jefferson in designing the University of Virginia in the early 1800’s. That plan included rows of individual houses for the professors, each house containing lecture rooms and living quarters, which connected with the student dormitories by two colonnaded passageways. Other passageways connected dining halls and more student rooms.

The design for the 372,000-SF Eastport-South Manor Junior-Senior High School materialized after years of planning and design by BBS to create a school complex that would be economical and safe for day and night use, and allow children in Grades 7 to 12 to interact safely.

The final $88.0 million facility consists of 5 attached buildings that house commonly used facilities and 113 classrooms that range from 800 to2,500 SF. The biggest spaces are for large group instruction. The wings are clustered in a U-shape around a central building that is attached only by its “Main Street” – a 20-foot-wide corridor – to the others. The main corridor runs through the 29,650-SF central building, which includes the school entrance, and connects the building to the Physical Education and Fine Arts wings on one end and Academic wings on the other. The Administrative and Guidance offices are in the front of the central building, and a 9,000-SF media center is in the rear. The Cafeteria wing is set behind the central building and is connected by a smaller corridor to the gymnasium and the academic wings.

The green color of the framed-and-tinted windows and shingled roofs tie the building into the surrounding rural community. Furthermore, the white Tuscan columns bring a classical look. This unique architectural language and the “village-like style” of the building configuration give the community sense of pride and ownership. The building is a superb example of a human-scale architecture.

Project Facts