This story was originally published in the June 2025 edition of the ECFS Reporter.
We are renovating our campuses for an innovative and sustainable future.
Ethics does not end within a classroom’s four walls. At ECFS, we believe that all of our spaces, from dining halls to corridors, must reflect this ethos. To uphold these values, we prioritize creating an environment that fosters social-emotional learning and encourages meaningful interactions among students and employees. This means designing spaces that not only are aesthetically beautiful and able to manage our School’s capacities but also center the importance of sustainability and experiential learning.
Over the past several years, both the Fieldston and Ethical Culture campuses have undergone significant facility upgrades, all designed to support our mission of a sustainable, ethics-centered, and forward-thinking learning environment. This is all made possible thanks to the unbelievably generous philanthropic support of our community and the dedication and expertise of our Operations team. We look forward to making additional improvements and building on this foundational capital work in the years ahead.
September 2022
Ethical Culture’s fifth-floor renovation project was completed, transforming the specials classrooms into dynamic, interdisciplinary, and flexible spaces.
December 2022
Ethical Culture celebrated the installation of the basement floor’s air conditioning and the unveiling of a newly designed lower cafeteria. This improvement created a bright, welcoming space for ECFS’s youngest students and a versatile space for the after school program.
Summer 2023
The Fieldston Lower building is now fully air-conditioned. Even better, the building’s state-of-the-art HVAC system is designed to reduce fossil fuel use, making it a win for both comfort and sustainability.
Summer 2024
The interior of the Fieldston Middle and Upper Dining Hall was redesigned to better manage traffic flow during lunch periods, enhance our programmatic offerings, and upgrade our front-of-house equipment.
When making improvements, we also consider beautifying our campuses. One such project included resurfacing the floors in the Varsity Gym and the Ethical Culture basement gym and modernizing Fieldston Lower’s first-floor hallway.
Summer 2025
Ethical Culture’s multiyear renovation project will be completed this summer. This phase includes the installation of air conditioning in all remaining classrooms, reducing our reliance on boilers over time and fostering a comfortable environment for students, families, faculty, and staff!
We are proud to announce the renovation of the Fieldston Lower playground, made possible through the extraordinary generosity of a single donor. This remarkable gift will bring to fruition a dynamic playground that will be transformed into a STEAM-based environment, seamlessly blending fun, learning, and nature. With a complete structural refresh, upgraded soft matting for safety, and brand-new sun sails for added shade, this space will encourage imaginative and collaborative play while incorporating interactive features, such as engineering challenges, science stations, and water tables, ensuring that playtime nurtures both body and mind.
Summer 2026 and Beyond
Recognizing a need to expand our science and innovation spaces at Fieldston Upper, we spent the past year collaborating with architects and construction firms to survey our campus and consider possibilities. This bold initiative to construct a new state-of-the-art building to support our programming marks a significant step toward advancing our mission to provide students with unparalleled opportunities for rigorous, STEM-based learning.
We envision the new science and innovation building becoming a dynamic hub for discovery, innovation, and collaboration, thereby dramatically advancing the scope and scale of student research. As ECFS prepares for the next 150 years of academic excellence, the potential for expansion and deeper exploration in science and innovation is inspiring and boundless.
For details on how you can participate in these exciting projects, please reach out to Rose Turshen, Chief Advancement Officer, at rturshen@ecfs.org.
