Westminster Receives $10 Million Gift to Enhance Residential Life

Westminster School has received a $10 million gift from an anonymous donor to revitalize student and faculty residential life on campus.
 

“The gift is the second largest in the school’s history and will be used to replace two of Westminster’s existing five dormitories,” said Headmaster Bill Philip. “Improving residential facilities on campus has been a long-standing priority of the school’s master plan.” The largest gift ever received by the school was a $33-million bequest by alumnus Walter E. Edge Jr. ’35 in 1996.
 

“Our anonymous donor’s vision promises to transform the residential side of our campus for students and faculty, just as our recently constructed Armour Academic Center transformed the east side of our campus,” said Chairman of the Westminster Board of Trustees T. Treadway Mink Jr. ’77, P’11. “Responding enthusiastically to this unique opportunity, alumni, parents and friends of the school have already committed an additional $6 million toward the project.”
 

The new three-story, Tudor-style dormitories will be set on the perimeter of the school’s main residential quad and will each include 49 student beds and four faculty apartments. They will have an Energy-Star-Rated design and feature geothermal heating and cooling, abundant natural light and water conservation features. The buildings they are replacing, Squibb House and Andrews House were built in 1949 and 1953, respectively, and do not meet future student and faculty housing needs. The school’s enrollment size will not change as a result of the new facilities.
 

Construction of the new buildings is expected to begin in March and will be completed in time for the opening of school in 2013. The dormitories they will replace will remain in use until the new facilities open.
 

Graham Gund ’59, president of Gund Partnership, an award-winning architecture firm in Cambridge, Mass., has designed the new buildings. He also has developed the school’s master plan and designed numerous campus facilities, including the school’s Armour Academic Center, which opened in 2009.
 

Approximately 70 percent of Westminster’s 390 students are boarding students and the remainder are day students. Westminster students represent 47 Connecticut towns and cities, 25 states and 22 countries.