Mary M. Hooker Environmental Sciences Magnet School

Hartford, CT

Mary M. Hooker Environmental Sciences Magnet School is not just a school – it’s an immersive educational experience that blends the natural world with the built environment. A unique PreK-8 facility located on 17 pristine acres near downtown Hartford, Connecticut, with six acres that are designated as an outdoor nature center and trail system, this extraordinary resource extends the learning experience beyond the walls of the school and enables the faculty to develop a wide-ranging environmental curriculum. BL Companies designed a new 28,500 SF addition and renovated-as-new the remaining 70,000 SF. Using the built environment as a teaching tool itself, the project includes ecologically and environmentally inspired spaces such as a butterfly vivarium, planetarium, greenhouse, weather station, aquatics laboratory and an ecological display for the school’s main lobby. Completed in 2010, this is the first public school in New England to earn LEED Platinum.