St. James Episcopal Day School is a Blue Ribbon Award winner with a rich history of faith-based education in downtown Baton Rouge. The school engaged Tipton Associates to plan improvements for a shell space on the second floor of an older campus building. Tipton’s comprehensive analysis of spaces on campus revealed an opportunity to create new, potent adjacencies by using the Killgore Hall shell space for early childhood education and approaching Atkinson Hall as a learning commons.
The design concept for Atkinson Hall centered on the transformation of a traditional, compartmentalized library and neighboring classrooms, formerly used bythe Pre-K students, into a state-of-the-art enrichment center complete with a visual art studio, maker space, and STEAM lab. By reimagining the building’s core, the project creates a high-energy “anchor” for the campus. This centralized hub nurtures curiosity. Projects are brought to life, and the school community gathers to connect with student work.