ISS Names Architects for Master Facilities Plan

Indian Springs School has selected San Antonio, Texas-based Lake|Flato Architects and Birmingham’s ArchitectureWorks to develop its new master facilities plan.

ArchitectureWorks’ Dick Pigford and Marzette Fisher and Lake|Flato’s Greg Papay and Brandi Rickels have been meeting with the school’s Building and Grounds Committee, led by ISS Board of Governors member Jimmy Lewis ’75 of Birmingham’s Lewis Investment Company; the Board of Governors, chaired by Libby Pantazis; and groups of students, parents, alumni, faculty and friends to explore priorities in line with the school’s latest strategic plan. While the entire campus and curriculum are being considered, priority areas are art and dining facilities, classroom renovations, and technology enterprises.

Established in 1984, Lake|Flato is nationally recognized for its work in residential design and independent school master planning, design and construction. In 2004, the American Institute of Architects awarded Lake|Flato the prestigious Firm Award, the highest honor an American architecture firm can receive, and the firm is featured regularly in Architectural Digest, including its June 2012 issue. The firm was also featured in a recent issue of Garden & Gun magazine.

ArchitectureWorks is very familiar with the Springs campus, having designed and constructed dormitories and a science center for the school in 2007. They are known throughout the state and region for their commercial, equestrian, healthcare, institutional, religious and residential projects for such clients as Children’s of Alabama, Birmingham-Southern College, Auburn University and Books-A-Million.

“We feel fortunate that ArchitectureWorks and Lake|Flato have chosen to work with Indian Springs. Their exceptional reputations are well known regionally and nationally, and their interest in working on the project speaks to its potential, both in terms of beauty and integrity,” says Charles Simpson of Birmingham’s Brookmont Realty Group, a member of the Building and Grounds Committee who is an alumnus parent and the parent of an incoming ISS student.

Simpson’s views are unanimously embraced by the committee, comprised of Ed Cassady ’76 of the Robins & Morton construction and engineering company in Birmingham, Tim Blair ’81 of the Shannon Waltchak commercial real estate firm in Birmingham, Tom Carruthers ’78 with Carruthers Real Estate Company in Birmingham, and Indian Springs Director Gareth Vaughan, Associate Director/Dean of Academics David Noone, Director of Development Beth Mulvey, and Director of Finance Tanya Yeager.

In the forefront of innovative school design when constructed in 1952, the Springs campus was originally designed by the Olmsted Brothers company, designer of urban landscapes nationwide including such Alabama sites as Samford University, Huntingdon College, and the University of Montevallo. The firm’s leaders were the sons of famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park in New York City.