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Exterior View of the Salvation Army Kroc Center by MGA Partners
Exterior view of the Shipley School
Interior view of the GFS project by MGA Partners

Upper School
The Haverford School

Early Childhood Program

Germantown Friends School

Salvation Army Kroc Center

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Related Projects:

Interior of Germantown Friends School Early Childhood Program designed by MGA Partners, showing classroom spaces through glass doors with large orange number ‘2’ graphics.

Early Childhood Program

Germantown Friends School

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Exterior view of the Salvation Army Kroc Center in Philadelphia designed by MGA Partners, featuring athletic fields and community recreation spaces under a blue sky.

Salvation Army Kroc Center

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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Modern academic building at The Haverford School designed by MGA Partners, with glass façades and students playing soccer on an adjacent athletic field.

Upper School

The Haverford School

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Related Projects

Area

​162,300 sf masterplan
37,000 sf addition & renovation

Certification

LEED Silver

In the Media

Foundations for Success, Design on the Delaware 2016
Realizing a Masterplan, National Business Officers Association, 2017
Foundations for Success, Delaware Valley APPA, 2017

Students playing basketball in the courtyard outside the new Shipley Common

Bronze Award for Design Excellence 
AIA Pennsylvania


Award for Design Excellence 
AIA Philadelphia


Historic Preservation Award
Go for the Green Award
Lower Merion Township

The project also included renovating and adding to the historic original Old Main building to centralize the Resource Center, improve circulation and reconnect it to the campus green.

Walkway view across the Shipley School’s campus green framed by new and historic buildings.
Renovated Old Main building interior with restored fireplace and circulation corridor
Renovated Old Main building interior with restored fireplace and circulation corridor
Dusk photograph of the building by MGA Partners
Students practicing music

The new Commons Building is an active meeting place because it combines large assembly spaces with rooms for music and the arts. 

Students drawing in the art room.
Interior of Shipley Commons featuring exposed wood ceilings, brick walls, and natural light-filled gathering spaces.
Interior of Shipley Commons featuring exposed wood ceilings, brick walls, and natural light-filled gathering spaces.
Interior of Shipley Commons featuring exposed wood ceilings, brick walls, and natural light-filled gathering spaces.

The Dining Hall is the main assembly room, with seats for 280 and an associated full kitchen/serving facility. 

Architectural section rendering of the Shipley School dining hall by MGA Partners.
Students playing baseball on Shipley’s athletic field adjacent to the new Commons building

A new main pedestrian circulation path connects the Campus Green to an outdoor patio, terrace, and the athletic fields beyond.

A Campus Green is defined through careful placement of new buildings and additions into a formal campus space for Middle and Upper Schools.

Aerial rendering of the Shipley School showing new buildings, athletic fields, and campus green.
Contemporary glass and brick Shipley Commons building on the Shipley School campus, designed by MGA Partners.

Masterplan &
Student Commons
The Shipley School

The Shipley School, founded in 1894 as a girls’ residential college preparatory, has become a highly respected co-educational day school. Located in a neighborhood of educational institutions, the Shipley School focuses its pre-K-12 mission on the development of the “whole child” through a balance of academic, athletic, and arts education.

In 2003, MGA Partners documented the physical circumstances of the campus and programmatic needs of the school in a Facilities Strategic Plan. This formed the basis for a Masterplan developed in 2005 through workshop collaboration with the Board of Trustees, Administration, and Faculty.

The first significant project was a new 26,000 square foot building that replaces the existing dining facilities, provide art and music studios as well as a flexible-use gray box performance venue for use by Music and Theater. The new building redefines and shapes the existing lawn to become an important campus place. 

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