Leaders of the school gathered at the River Park construction site to commemorate the official “topping out” of the campus on May 23. Joined by trustees, donors and project visionaries, participants were able to sign the last steel beam of the River Park gymnasium, which was eventually lifted and put into place.
The River Park property, known formerly as Weddington Golf and Tennis, was purchased by the school in 2017 for $42 million dollars. It is set to be completed in the fall of 2026. The athletic campus will have two athletic fields, eight tennis courts, a gymnasium and an Olympic sized swimming pool as well as walking paths and green spaces for Studio City residents to use.
President Rick Commons, who addressed the crowd onsite, spoke about how the campus will positively impact the school and Studio City community, while thanking benefactors and supporters of the project. Head of Athletics Terry Barnum and Board of Trustees Representative Jean Kaplan also spoke about the future of River Park.
“We will have an extraordinary third campus,” Commons said. “A place for all grades to gather, a place where our athletes, our community members, our dancers, our students, our parents and our alumni can gather. We will have a place that takes care of the environment. We will have a place that stands for our intention to share our facility with the neighborhood, the city of Los Angeles. That’s not something that we do with the Middle or Upper school. It is something that we aim to do with our River Park campus. It is historic.”
Gensler, the LA-based architectural firm that designed River Park, has directed other projects for professional sports teams, such as the Los Angeles Rams’ new practice facility in Woodland Hills, and Crypto.com Arena. Matt Construction, the company that also constructed the middle school campus in 2008, is in charge of building the property. JD De Matté, the head of construction for the school, said the project will greatly serve student-athletes and the operation of athletics at the school.
“I’m really proud of this project, because what it’s going to allow the kids to do, get home earlier and be able to go home with their family and do their homework,” De Matté said. “We have to double up on sports at the Upper School with late practices, where we sometimes don’t have enough facilities. All the campuses have been special to me, but this one even more.”
Alan Wilson, the chair of the Board of Trustees, said although the community was initially unreceptive to River Park, it will accept and support the campus upon completion.
“Change is hard for people in general,” Wilson said. “Once the community gets a chance to get exposure to the facility and realize what good stewards we are for the property, they will realize, ‘you know what, this actually turned out to be better than I thought.’ We’ll really have to prove it to people, so they can see the promises kept.”
Steven Chung ’89, who is the Gensler architect in charge of the project, said topping out in construction is always a remarkable achievement.
“Many will tell you [River Park] is not done yet,” Chung said. “And it’s not, but I think it’s really important to pause here, because this is a milestone in construction. When you put the last piece of steel in place, you can double the amount of workers that you can get on a job site and work that much faster. We’re sprinting towards the finish line, but we have to take a moment to reflect before we do that, because it’s a lot of hard work to get to this point.”
As a graduate from Harvard School for Boys, Chung said his background has given him additional insight when working on the project’s sustainability initiatives, which will include a stormwater capture system, native landscaping and solar panels.
“The school taught us how to ask questions,” Chung said. “One fundamental question was, “is the grass at the former golf course sustainable or not?” To keep that grass going, they were dumping a ton of pesticides in there, and all of that simply gets washed down below the soil to a clay layer, into the water. We wanted to do artificial turf like we have at the upper school campus.”
Additionally, Chung said he is grateful to be able to give back to the school through the architectural design of River Park.
“I really do feel like the way I think and the values that I have developed at Harvard,” Chung said. “What that means though, is how I think and what values I have exactly shaped how I design projects. So when I started hearing about this project, I felt uniquely well equipped to bring everything the school gave me to maximize this project for this school and all the students.”
