Lindsay Houses First Set of Students

BY ALEX HEBERT

        Opened in November of 2011, the Lindsay Center for Mathematics and Science houses ASP classes this summer for the first time in history.  Although a few classes are located in the Schoolhouse and other buildings around campus, most courses for the summer are held in this beautiful new facility.  Fortunately, it is one of the few buildings on campus with air conditioning, so those in class there do not boil during school.

       The Lindsay Center has 14 science labs, 21 classrooms, and 2 lounges/study rooms.  The building also features a large greenhouse, a solar observatory, and a 70-pound Foucault pendulum suspended from a 60-foot wire.  It was built to replace St. Paul’s Payson Memorial Science Building, which had eight classrooms, three laboratories, and one lecture room.  The Payson Building was torn down shortly after Lindsay’s construction was complete.

       According to the St. Paul’s School’s website and the informational television found in the lobby, the Lindsay Center was built with the environment in mind.  It uses 25% less energy than its conventional counterpart, the Forest Stewardship Council certified all of the wood used in its construction as sustainable, and over 90% of the debris created by its construction was recycled.  Even the floor is made of composite materials.

        With beautiful artifacts lining its hallways, its “Science on a Sphere” room, and its incredible array of exit signs that don’t lead to an exit, the Lindsay Center is a very intriguing building.  However, one will notice that there is nothing hanging from the walls in the Lindsay Center’s hallways.  This is not simply because St. Paul’s faculty believes students learn best when surrounded by white paint.  According to Janene Hersey, a custodian from Loudon who has been working at the Lindsay Center since it opened in November, “It’s destructive to post things on the walls, which is why we have designated the bulletin boards for it.  Tape is difficult to take off, and sometimes leaves pieces behind that need to be taken off with a razor, which can scratch the surface of the wall or glass.”

          Students here at the ASP love having classes in the Lindsay Center.  Henry Johnstone, a Psychology for Performance student from John Stark High School, says, “The Lindsay building is great.  It has air conditioning and huge classrooms, which is very nice.”  With all of its educational resources, the Lindsay Center is one of the most state-of-the-art buildings located at any preparatory school and an invaluable educational resource, especially for classes like Artificial Intelligence, who are able to use the robotics lab, Astronomy, who can access the observatory, and Ecology, who enjoy the greenhouse.