The Richard B. Fisher Middle School was built with slate and mica schist, the building stone that gives the campus its handsome and distinctive appearance.
The moment wasn't planned, but just as celebrants cut the ribbon to open the new Richard B. Fisher Middle School, the tower bell rang out eight times. Here was Penn Charter's past saluting a new chapter in the school's history.
"This is a great night for us," Earl J. Ball, head of school, told the hundreds of delighted students, parents, faculty, alumni and neighbors who gathered in front of the new building on a warm and lovely September evening. They answered with applause.
The celebration marked the conclusion of a construction project that began in May 2001, and the evening had two stars: the handsome stone building and the benefactor whose extraordinary $5 million gift allowed the construction to begin.
Richard B. Fisher OPC '53 told the crowd that he found it fitting that his gift enabled creation of a new middle school building because he was a middle schooler himself when he arrived at Penn Charter.
"I cannot fail to try to convince you of how important this is to me and my family—that we've been able to do something for the school that meant so much to me," said Fisher.
"Coming to Penn Charter in sixth grade was really the turning point of my life," said Fisher, who is chairman emeritus of Morgan Stanley.
Fisher had polio as a child and was enrolled in a public school for the handicapped, as they were called then. His teachers hoped he would learn a craft that would let him support himself. But Fisher's doctor advised his parents that he was keenly intelligent and that he would thrive in an academic setting. With the physician's help, he applied to Penn Charter. He was admitted on a full scholarship.
Fisher excelled at school. He was class president in his junior and senior years, a member of the Literary Society, and a staff member on both the school magazine and the yearbook. Despite his physical challenge, Fisher also wrestled on the school team.
"I remember it so vividly," Fisher recalled. ""The teachers, the classmates, the administrators, the buildings."
Most of all, he remembered "the attitude."
"I had so many teachers who concentrated on thinking: 'What we're here for is to learn how to think.'"
In his introduction, Dr. Ball thanked Fisher for his generosity and faith in the school. Fisher and his wife, Jeanne, listened attentively. When it was his turn to speak, though, Fisher said he viewed the relationship in reverse.
"I cannot fail to try to convince you of how important this is to me and my family—that we've been able to do something for the school that meant so much to me," said Fisher. "We're here to thank Penn Charter."
New generations of Penn Charter middle schoolers will think and learn in a building inspired by both tradition and innovation. With its slate roof and stone exterior, the design echoes other, older Penn Charter buildings. But the interior is thoroughly modern.
The 45,000-square-foot Middle School has 13 classrooms, three science labs, a music and drama room, and a two-story assembly and performance space. The buiilding uses wireless "cloud" technology system and each classroom is equipped with a SmartBoard, a flat, wall-mounted display device that is the 21st century's answer to the chalk board.
The Middle School was designed by the Philadelphia firm Bower Lewis and Thrower. Eric M. Rahe, a principal at BLT, said the building does not reflect a single vision, but rather the best thinking of architects in consultation with Penn Charter students, teachers and administrators, especially Middle School Director Dr. Darryl J. Ford.
The collaboration resulted in a number of innovations. For instance, there are three locker pods—one for each grade, so that each grade can have its own "neighborhood." There are three different carpet and wall color schemes, so that students don't feel as if they are always in the same room. Most striking of all, there is an abundance of large windows—and they are operable. The school is flooded with natural light and, for the teacher who so desires, fresh air.
The building's icon spaces are the Rosen Atrium and the Balderston Commons (now called Ford Commons). The two-story commons, with a wall of windows looking out on the sky, was designed as a "place of memory." The entire Middle School—now about 230 students—can gather in the space for assemblies, performances and Meeting for Worship.
If their eyes wander upwards, students will see the exposed trusses that frame the structure. Rahe and his colleagues hope the view sends a subliminal message: "We're hoping that it makes students think about how buildings are constructed."
The Board of Trustees made a commitment to build for the ages by using the slate for the roof and schist for the exterior—the same building stone that gives the Penn Charter campus its distinctive and handsome appearance. Schist is a metamorphic rock with strong, thin and irregular layers; the grayish stone is veined with mica that sparkles in the sunlight. The new building required 315 tons of schist, quarried locally and brought to the campus by the truckload.
Rahe said the new building emphasizes the traditional order of architecture and describes the design as "muscular, with aggressive symmetry."
The sixth, seventh and eighth graders who attended the opening celebration wore bright yellow T-shirts proclaiming: Our Middle School Rocks!
As they streamed through the building's red doors—which echo the beloved red doors on the main building—the students used the same word over and over to describe the new Richard B. Fisher Middle School: Awesome.