On March 31, students fresh from spring break streamed out of Assembly, eager to explore the newly reimagined Shattuck Schoolhouse. After nine months of construction and years of planning based on community needs and best practices, the halls reopened.
Light, airy common spaces and classrooms beckoned with potential. Architectural renderings morphed into motion as students and teachers found their own spaces for connection, deep learning, and focus. Students filled Gleason Hall with the hum of conversation, while their dynamic discussions infused energy into long-empty classrooms.
Since opening in 1922 as Nobles’ primary academic building, the Shattuck Schoolhouse has seen seven renovations. The evolution of educational best practices, technology and construction advancements, and community needs drove each project. This 2025–2026 redesign, a partnership between architecture firm William Rawn Associates and Shawmut Design and Construction, prioritizes connection and support for learners and colleagues, and situates offices to encourage organic interdisciplinary collaboration.
As the original academic home on our campus, Shattuck Schoolhouse is once again central to teaching and learning at Nobles, offering spaces and resources that will help shape our next chapter as a school.
Years of strategic planning and community input informed the Shattuck improvements. Highlights include:
- Gleason Hall, a large central hub with a cafe for social connection, studying, and gatherings
- Digital screens and community bulletin boards to promote upcoming events and opportunities
- Twelve classrooms
- Twenty offices, in addition to many more within larger departments’ suites
- A spacious Learning Center with private offices and communal workspaces
- A central office for diversity, equity, and inclusion, including a student lounge
- A college counseling wing with a conference room for meetings and college visits, as well as private offices
- A medical wing with premier exam room facilities
- First-floor deans’ offices to facilitate student engagement
- A new math office that continues to invite drop-in student support
- A new glass-enclosed entry to Gleason by way of The Beach
- Multiple seating areas throughout the alcoves and Gleason Hall for connection, studying, and breaks between classes
- Environmentally sustainable features, including triple-glazed windows, water-smart restrooms, energy-saving automated all-electric HVAC and LED lighting systems, and carpet made from recycled materials
- Images that celebrate a breadth of experience and talents within the Nobles community
- A bluestone courtyard behind Gleason for connecting with others, as well as to the outdoors
- Open cubbies for student belongings in place of the seldom-used lockers
As the community marks its first full week in the redesigned Shattuck, with students enlivening classrooms and alcoves and queuing up at the new cafe, Nobles’ long-held vision has become an active panorama of learning, connection, and possibility—it was well worth the wait.
