Greenhills School

Greenhills is a singular place. You can sense it in the architecture. Our upper school has grown over the years, but you’d never know it from the building’s appearance. There are three reasons for this. First, each one of the many additions to our campus is consistent with what came before. Designed by Michigan Architect Laureate Alden B. Dow, the lines of the school, hewed in dark wood and lightened by spotless windows from roof to floor, are consistent from one end of the school to the other. There is a respect here for the innovations of the past, an elegant match of tradition and progress that is no coincidence. Dow’s greater genius, however, is manifest in the second source of the building’s vibrancy. Greenhills is packed with gathering spaces — for groups from two to two hundred. Each grade level has a space of its own, a comfort zone, where students and faculty can greet each other each morning, find friends, find help, find ideas. The design of Greenhills is intended to draw people together, and this happens at our school in a remarkable way. Our students are respectful without resorting to mere deference. Our teachers communicate without condescension. Lastly, Greenhills is aging well because it is loved. We expect the best of each other every day, and the community of our school both promotes and draws on this. The truth is that Greenhills could be housed anywhere and the spirit of the place — challenge, vivacity, delight, loyalty — would endure. This is what makes Greenhills the uniquely inspirational environment it has grown to be.