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Only eighteen months ago, on this very spot, a bulldozer ripped open a gash across the face of the Ambrose Monell III ’26 Science Building. Piece by piece, brick by brick, the venerable old building was clawed down and carted away, erased from the earth. Soon nothing was left but a gaping hole in the ground.

VISTA sits on roughly the same plot of land and follows roughly the same sloping gradient as its predecessor, but the new building is shifted slightly to the south to offer more expansive views of the western valley beyond. At night, VISTA looks otherworldly — a brightly lit bulb standing in sharp contrast to the historic buildings around and the inky sky above. In the setting sun, the building’s metal skin exudes warm tones of red and brown that shimmer and pulse.

As guests arrive for the grand opening, they cannot help but marvel at the building’s incandescent beauty, made all the more beautiful by the improbability of its existence. Near the entrance, a few eager students mill about hoping to catch the eye of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. James Rothman ’67. When he finally turns up, Rothman chats with the students for a while, then enters the room and is immediately mobbed by several more adults who are just as eager to make his acquaintance.

In the background, a bartender is busy pouring chemistry-themed drinks. Nearby, BB and Jud Reis ’60 P ’98 GP ’26 are chatting with Stephanie Olmsted, widow of Robert M. Olmsted ’59 P ’89 and Board Chair Justin Klein ’65. Across the room, Science Department Head Josh Lake is deep in conversation with Director of the Grauer Family Institute Gwyneth Connell.

Not far away, architects Ann Beha and Tom Hotaling are chatting with Facilities Committee Chair Buzz Yudell ’65. They are friendly and engaging, especially Ann, who founded Annum Architects more than thirty years ago. They have spent months planning for this moment, and they have imagined it for many more. A few feet away is Stacie Guilfoyle, the general contractor of Shamut Design and Construction, who made Annum’s design a reality.

Soon, servers in white shirts and black aprons begin handing out cream-colored cocktails served in Pyrex-style beakers. Each drink comes with a small test tube filled with bluish liquid. Eventually, Head of School Tim Richards rises to his feet and clinks his glass several times. It is a loud, boisterous crowd and it takes a minute for everyone to quiet down. A toast — to the future of science education at Pomfret School. Everyone raises a glass. One by one, they pour the contents of the test tube into the contents of the beaker, setting off a chain reaction.

TODAY, SCIENCE IS THE MOST SUBSCRIBED SUBJECT AT POMFRET SCHOOL. Twelve different teachers offer thirty unique courses in eleven distinct fields — everything from aquaponics, robotics, and forensics to astronomy, engineering, and environmental design. But when Monell Science Building first opened in 1958, three science teachers taught just four basic science classes. 

Back then, Monell contained three laboratories, a large lecture hall, two small classrooms, two darkrooms, a space for electronics, a small animal room, a wood shop, a metal shop, an auto shop, an office, and a space to store equipment. The project was made possible thanks to the Ambrose Monell Foundation, which donated $200,000, roughly half of the funds needed to build a new science center dedicated to the memory of Ambrose Monell III ’26, who had died in a plane crash decades earlier. 

By the turn of the century, even after two large-scale remodels, Monell still felt like an artifact of the 1950s — a squat, low-slung building with a flat rubberized roof, cinder blocks for walls, and polished asbestos tiles for floors. 

For decades now, a new science building has been a perennial topic of conversation. Ellen Browne, who teaches math and engineering, recalls discussions of a new facility when she joined the faculty almost thirty years ago. “I’ve been waiting for this building since 1997,” she says. Since then, hundreds of students and dozens of faculty have yearned for a new science center to call their own. At times, the School has gotten remarkably close, but for one reason or another, the projects have always stalled. 

In 2021, Director of Advancement Will Mitchell ’84 was deep into developing what would become Amplify: The Campaign for Pomfret School, an $80 million, multi-year fundraising effort, when he had an idea. Mitchell had taken science classes in Monell when he was a student at Pomfret in the 80s. Though he loved the old building, he knew its days were numbered. To try and get a better handle on whether or not Pomfret’s current donor base would be willing to support a new science center, he crafted a survey asking key stakeholders to rank their top fundraising priorities. “When the results came back, science was THE top priority,” Mitchell says. “It blew the other options out of the water.” 

Of course, it is one thing to want a science center, it is quite another to build one. Science centers are notoriously expensive. Cost overruns, equipment shortages, and supply chain interruptions are just a few of the many landmines that can blow up a project. Early estimates suggested the building would require the single largest capital expenditure in Pomfret history ($22 million). To pull off such a project would require vision, courage, and a little bit of madness. Eventually, Head of School Tim Richards, working with Mitchell and Pomfret’s Board of Trustees, hosted a series of focus groups totaling more than 150 people over fourteen meetings. “The excitement was really palpable,” he says. “This was something the community was hungry for and wanted to support.”

VISTA STANDS FOR VENUE FOR INNOVATION, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND ACADEMICS. In endorsing the name, Science Department Head Josh Lake described the building this way: 

“VISTA is a microscope, allowing for our deepest and most focused scientific studies yet. It’s a spectroscope, a place where our scholars sample across the spectrum of scientific fields. It’s a telescope for our most passionate students to look far into their futures. It’s a whiteboard on which students will record their ideas, hypotheses, graphs, and conclusions for all to see. It’s a 3D Printer, a generative space where student designs will be built up and made real. And it’s a humble lab bench, an open surface for equipment, notebooks, computers, and measurement tools, where so many students in the coming generations will have their first key spark to become scientists.” 

At 22,000 square feet, VISTA is double the size of Monell. The building, which came in on time and on budget, is a marvel of value-based engineering and design. Every square inch is used efficiently, nothing has gone to waste. “The amount of potential packed into this building is massive,” says Lake. When students returned to campus in September, they were in awe. “It was a shock to see the new building,” says Finn DeNapoli ’26, whose father, Ted DeNapoli ’89, attended classes in Monell. “I love it.” 

The open and airy design is the brainchild of Annum Architects. Annum clients include leading academic, civic, and cultural organizations like the US Department of State, Yale, MIT, Harvard, and the Smithsonian. Awards for their work include the Boston Society of Architects Educational Facilities Award, the American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Architecture, and the SCUP/AIA-CAE Excellence in Architecture Award. Based in Boston, the firm was founded by renowned architect Ann Beha over thirty years ago. “The goal for this project,” she says, “was to create something that would not just serve science students, but really the whole Pomfret community.”

The construction of VISTA took eighteen months to complete. The company that made Annum’s vision a reality is Shawmut Design and Construction. Shawmut was no stranger to Pomfret, having partnered previously on the renovation of Hard Auditorium in 2022 and the construction of the Health and Wellness Center in 2018. “When the contract went to bid, Shawmut really stood out from a crowd of qualified contractors,” says Director of Campus Planning and Facilities Services Brenda Bullied.

The centerpiece of VISTA is an airy space called the Hamilton Hub, named for Gray ’11 and Miles Hamilton ’13. Windows stretching two stories bathe the space in natural light. The floors are polished cement, and the walls and ceiling are accented with natural wood. The Trust Observation Deck offers spectacular views of the athletic fields below.

Beyond the Hub, the building branches into a labyrinth of classrooms, labs, and gathering spaces. Oversized hallways called “commons” are extensions of the classrooms themselves. Everywhere, glass walls create an atmosphere of openness and transparency. On the uppermost level of the building, state-of-the-art lab spaces are paired with the roof mechanicals needed to support them. The top floor also has a dedicated laboratory prep space with two pass-through chemical fume hoods. In each classroom, suspended electrical outlets, power microscopes, and other instruments are positioned on movable lab benches.

James Rothman, who donated to the project, was also a vital member of the design process. “I had the opportunity to share my thoughts with Annum, and I am just floored by what they came up with. With its beautiful design and fluid interior, the building invites you in and broadcasts the key message that science is not just a body of facts and hypotheses but is an organic and dynamic human process.”

On the ground level, reinforced steel struts allow physics students to hang and then measure the trajectory of heavy objects as they swing. A mudroom next to the environmental science classroom brings students directly outside. 

Across the landscape, a large door connects the indoor makerspace to the outdoor makeryard, giving student-engineers ample room to assemble their creations and store oversized materials. Just to the north, a grassy hill abutting a pollinator garden has been left open for students to kick back and relax. 

Reflecting on the last eighteen months, Brenda Bullied summed it up this way: “It’s not just a building. It’s the physical embodiment of our dedication to academic excellence and innovation. With its modern facilities and flexible spaces, VISTA will serve as a catalyst for transformative learning experiences, empowering our students to explore, discover, and reach new heights of scientific achievement for many years to come.” 

 

This story first appeared in the Winter 2025 issue of Pomfret Magazine.

 

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