The Chelsea School
Silver Spring, MD

The Chelsea School is a private secondary school in Silver Spring, Maryland whose mission is to educate students with dyslexia or similar learning disabilities. The school purchased a 4.9-acre site, which includes several structures that comprised a Catholic school taught by the Sisters of the Holy Name. The property contains a classroom building, gymnasium and an historic manor house - the Riggs/Thompson House - built in 1858 by George Washington Riggs, founder of Riggs Bank, which was used as a convent for the Sisters of the Holy Name.

Ayers/Saint/Gross was asked to evaluate the challenges and opportunities that the site presented in adapting the existing structures to the programmatic demands of new educational imperatives prior to the purchase of the property. Ayers/Saint/Gross and its consultants conducted several on-site surveys whose reports were used to develop preliminary construction cost parameters. Because the Chelsea School leased administrative and limited classroom space across the street, an early objective was to consolidate all of its operation onto a single site. Following the existing condition survey, Ayers/Saint/Gross prepared a series of site planning alternatives. Each alternative accommodated an expansion and renovation to the classroom building and gymnasium, as well as new construction for a library/cafeteria/auditorium, the demolition of a 1930's addition to the Riggs/Thompson House and modifications to site parking and walkways.

Given the historic designation of the Riggs/Thompson House as well as its frame construction, the school elected to assign business development, finance and admissions departments to the residence rather than student-occupied spaces. The exterior has been converted to its orgininal materials by removing and refurbishing the German lap siding. The cornice has been restored by the addition of new dentils, removed during earlier modifications to the building.

Completion: 2004
Size: 70,800 GSF
Cost: $11,200,000