Kent Place Center for Innovation

Summit, NJ

Inspiration At Every Turn

Kent Place School is an independent, non-sectarian, girl’s day school located in Summit, New Jersey, serving 600 students in Kindergarten through grade 12.

The new Center for Innovation is a showcase of the school’s long-range master plan. A curriculum vision that interweaves an interdisciplinary approach with the “maker” qualities integral to a project-based learning model is prevalent throughout the building. It enables Kent Place to enhance its offerings in science, math, and art-based studies to challenge and move beyond 21st-century models for learning.

The Center for Innovation, which provides a new “front door” to the campus, features the Innovation Lab, which is strategically located to greet all members of the Kent Place community and promote the school’s mission-related imperatives of interdisciplinary learning, collaboration, and mentoring. The abundant use of window glazing results in a “see-and-be-seen” environment, communicating the values of transparency and information sharing. The larger, more flexible, energetic spaces support the introduction of an interdisciplinary STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) curriculum. Also on the ground floor are the Upper School art studios, a robotics area, a professional art gallery, meeting spaces, and the technology hub.